Dusk into Darkness
by Cooksiez
Summary: Anna is the sole heir to the throne of Arendelle, much the the dismay of the King's advisers. Wanting to prove her worth she goes to investigate a string of disappearances in North Mountain. What she finds is more than she is ready for. But maybe good things can come from tragedy. Maybe. Elsanna endgame. Slowburn. Approximate monthly update (sorry I procrastinate and write slow)
1. To Prove Yourself

**Author's Note: **Man to think we're coming up on the anniversary of me going on hiatus. Time sure flies. To show I'm not dead and haven't given up yet I'm editing the previous chapters to help me get back into this story. And after reading through it all again I'm remembering how much I loved this story.

I apologize for the delay. It's been a crazy year for sure transferring to uni. Rowing. And growing as a person in general. With this, I'm reposting the first four chapter with edits today and the second four tomorrow. And hopefully I'll have chapter nine out the week after that. But it's the last two week of school before break with finals and papers to write so don't hold me to that. I suggest rereading the chapters to familiarize yourself with the story again. I know I had to and I wrote the dang thing. But yeah hopefully I haven't disappointed anyone too bad.

As always, Love Capn' Cooks

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Black boots clicked through the halls of Arendelle Castle, their owner furious as she clutched her sword tightly at her hip, knuckles turning pale, a bundle of papers held in her other hand. The servants working in the main hall quickly removed themselves from the area when they caught a glimpse of the garments worn by the individual storming through the hallways. White pressed pants with a black military coat adorned in medals, lined in the rich forest green color that characterized the royals of Arendelle, a jewel encrusted sword hung comfortably at her hip. Copper colored bangs moved in rhythm with the quick pace of the princess, the rest of her hair held together in a high bun as she made her way towards one of the main meeting rooms of the castle. Coming to the room she was searching for she took a deep inhale of breath to calm her nerves as she approached the carved mahogany of double doors. With a final determined glare she pushed the doors open and entered the meeting room.

All heads in the room turned to the princess at her entrance. The expressions of the room's inhabitants ranged from surprise to distaste to disgust, and finally to the torn expression of the king, a mix of worry and slight disappointment written on his aging features.

"Anna," the king called from his position at the end of the long table that was the centerpiece of the large room, "what are you doing here, what happened to your piano lessons?"

Anna walked to the table giving a quick bow to the king before straightening herself and giving an intense stare to the other officials in the room.

"Father, I apologize for missing my lessons, but this seemed to take precedence over it"

She took the papers she had in her hand and fanned them out in front of her pressing both palms to the wooden long table. The king fixed his daughter with a curious glance as he tried to read the papers from the far side of the table. He motioned his steward over to the table.

"Kai, what are the papers being displayed on the table?"

"They appear to be papers detailing a number of disappearances from the town," the general answered before the steward could make his way to the other side of the table to see the contents of the papers. The general fixed Anna with a warning glare before turning back to the king.

"And what about these papers is so important?" the king asked putting on a stoic expression.

"My guards have been investigating these occurrences for the past few months," the general explained, "they seem to have increased a great deal as of late, all disappearances were of people heading through the North Mountain, travelers, merchants, dignitaries, it matters not who it is, they are never seen from again."

The war room fell into silence. Anna clutched her sword again tightly as she pondered if she should speak up and say what she wanted to say, casting a glance over the occupants of the room she took a deep breath and decided it was now or never.

"I believe it's the Ice Witch doing this" Anna stated, breaking the silence and watched closely at the reactions of everyone.

The room went dead silent as the officials absorbed the princess' words, the silence broken by the deafening hearty laugh of one of the visiting dignitaries.

"Ahhh, that was a good one young lass," he said in his thick Scottish accent, "why don't you go back to your bedtime stories and piano lessons, take the time to get your head out of the clouds."

Anna saw red as she glared fiercely at the man, catching the smirk plastered on the general's face. She chanced looking at her father to gauge his reaction, her heart sank when she saw his crestfallen face, cheeks slightly tinted in the embarrassment of his daughter's outburst.

"Everyone knows the Ice Witch is a legend, what makes you think it's her," the general scoffed, "spewing fairy tales in an official meeting of men, foolish girl"

Anna heard him finish the last part under his breath, though she wasn't the only one to hear the remark.

"Watch yourself, Sir Ivan, she is still my daughter, heir, and future ruler of Arendelle."

Her father sent a threatening look over to his general, calming back into his chair. He cleared his throat to gain the attention of the room, gesturing his arm to the royal treasurer to get his specific attention.

"Lord Rodrick, what is your take on this matter, you are more knowledgeable on the town and their happenings than any other among us."

The treasurer was a tall, thin man with dark greying hair, fingers adorned in a number of gemmed rings. He fidgeted with his rings collecting himself sending a nervous glance around the room.

"Well…the people are, from what I've seen and heard, very much believing it IS the Ice Witch, the legends are deeply rooted in our history, and I would like to state that there is a great many truths in legends."

"But more important than what the peasants think, your highness, is the fact that the North Mountain is a major trade route, the longer these disappearances go on, the more likely merchants and traders will stop wanting to use the path, and we have a great number of other kingdoms that we trade with only through that route, we're losing revenue at an alarming rate, whatever is in those mountains, a witch, bandits, or otherwise must be dealt with."

The treasurer finished, kneading his fingers together resting them on the table and looked downward to avoid the glances of those at the table.

Anna looked around the room assessing the number of faces that were now set in stern contemplation. This was her chance, she could finally prove to them that she could be a successful ruler, that she could be depended on, and had full right to be heir of Arendelle. No more condescending looks from the general and a few of the other officials, no more feeling like she was a letdown to her father for having been born female, she'd show them that she deserved this, that she'd earned it.

"Father," Anna called, eyebrows furrowing to make a stern expression, "if it would please you, I will personally lead a small team into North Mountain and deal with the problem myself."

All eyes turned to the princess then, gazes burning into her figure as they waited for the king's reply. The glare Sir Ivan was sending her way only made her want to go more, he was silently challenging her, a slight smirk stuck stupidly to his features as he anticipated the king's rejection of her proposal. She desperately wanted to wipe the smug expression off of his face with the back her hand, but she knew the better course of action was to convince her father to let her do this and come back victorious.

"What would your small party plan to do?" The king inquired.

"I would ask for five or six men from the guard to accompany me to investigate the cause of the disappearances in North Mountain, the small number of men should not take too many able men away from protecting Arendelle, and five or six men is an ideal stealth and search team."

"Once we find the problem we should be easily able to take care of it and reopen the trade route within a week or two," Anna replied, "unless the good general believes taking six men would be too much a detriment to his forces, in which case I can take less or go alone."

She fixed the general with a quick smirk before looking towards her father to await his reply. Anna could feel the general seething next to her, anger radiating off of him in waves at her remark.

"Your highness, my men are quite capable of protecting the kingdom, and minus a few men will not change that, her highness could take ten or more men if she so wishes it." The general added, his features displaying his pride for his men.

The king sat in his chair leaning heavily to one side stroking his bearded chin as he pondered his daughter's and the general's words.

"If Sir Ivan doesn't have a problem with a few of his men being used, then I am fine with your plan," the king sighed looking exhausted, "just remember you are my only heir, my only child, and my daughter, be careful, if the situation takes a turn for the worst, you are to return immediately."

"I understand father," Anna replied, expression calm as she bowed to her father, but the gleam in her eyes betrayed her excitement, "I will prepare for the journey I would like to leave tonight, the darkness should help us stay concealed."

"As you wish," the king stood from his chair, signaling the end of the meeting.

"Sir Ivan, I will be in the barracks at dusk to see whom you have deemed worthy for this trip, make sure they are ready to leave." Anna called back to the general as she left the meeting room ahead of everyone else, not bothering to look to see if he heard her, she knew he had heard her.

The princess of Arendelle briskly strode back through the intricate maze halls of the royal castle until she was back in her room, it was a very simple room, dark colored oak drawers lined the left wall, a queen size bed resting against the back wall, and forest green color of the room emanated a serene atmosphere. She peered around the room wondering what she should take on her trip, the North Mountain was a full day trip from the castle, and it was nearing the winter season meaning the snow would be thick on the ground. She figured she'd be able to make it to North Mountain by tomorrow night, this would also give her time to learn her men's strengths and weaknesses and come up with a strategy. As Anna went over to her drawers shuffling through all her clothes she realized she had nothing thick enough to stand the cold of the mountain.

Anna decided to go look for the head maid, if there was anything thick enough for Anna to wear into the mountain Gerda would know where it was. Leaving her room she caught the glimpse of one of the servants turning the corner of the hallway. 'They should know where Gerda is' she decided, running down the hallway to trail after them.

"Hey, wait up please" she called as she rounded the corner. Colliding into the maid who had begun washing the windows in one of the main hallways.

The princess blushed furiously, highlighting the freckles that dusted across her nose, as she realized two things. One, she had just tackled one of the maids to the floor in her haste and was in a very compromising position; she was holding herself up above the girl trapping the maid underneath her body. And two, the young maid who had been washing the window had successfully spilt the bucket of water on her white uniform when Anna crashed into her, turning the blouse see through. Without thinking Anna brushed the girl's light brown bangs out of her eyes to see her better, "Are you alright?" the question was automatic. When the girl flinched at the princess' touch Anna's mind snapped back to attention. She awkwardly crawled back off of the girl before standing up and offering her hand to help the maid, a small smile gracing her features.

"I'm extremely sorry for knocking you down, I was in a rush," Anna apologized, "not that that excuses my behavior of course, and I've caused you to knock over your bucket and spill water, and in affect soak your shirt. I'm so sorry."

A deep blush set in as the maid realized her shirt was now see through, her eyes wide in shock as she crossed her arms over her chest to try and conceal her body from the princess' gaze.

Thinking quickly Anna unbuttoned her military coat, which had a slight wet spot on the torso from where she had accidentally made contact with the maid's body, and removed it from herself revealing a white undershirt.

"Here," Anna rested her military coat around the young girl's shoulders, "and by any chance do you know where Gerda is?"

"Y-your highness, I could not possibly use your coat" the maid stuttered, as she began removing the coat from her being.

"Nonsense, you need it more than I do right now, and you can return it back to my room once it has dried"

"Thank you your highness, I'm grateful," the maid curtsied to Anna, "and Gerda is down in the kitchens overseeing the preparations for the evening meal."

"Perfect!" Anna exclaimed, "why don't you accompany me to the kitchen then, and I'll have someone make you hot chocolate to warm you up, you must be freezing."

The maid nodded quickly and hugged the coat to her tightly as she followed Anna down to the kitchens. The walk was silent the whole way, the only sound present was their shoes as they clicked across the tiles that shined enough to mirror their movements.

Anna could smell the heavenly scent of whatever Gerda was having prepared as they neared the kitchen. She inhaled deeply letting the smell guide her the rest of the way, practically forgetting the world around her.

"Gerda, what is that amazing smell?" she begged as she took her final steps into the kitchen.

Gerda turned away from instructing one of the chefs to see Anna striding in with one of the new maids.

"Ah, Anna I see you're still quick at making new friends," Gerda chortled, "what brings you to the kitchen this time, no one is going to sneak you chocolates at this age."

The princess' cheeks tinted a lively pink as she listened to Gerda's teasing, the downside to Gerda having practically raised her was that the elderly maid knew all of the princess' embarrassing stories.

"I'm not here for chocolate, at least not for myself," Anna gestured to the girl behind her, "I ran into this beautiful young lady by accident in my attempt to find you, and I was hoping to have a hot chocolate made for her to warm her up, she spilt some water on herself and the castle is quite chilly at this time of year."

"Still the flirt I see," Gerda sighed, "but yes we can get Elizabeth a drink to warm her, and what was your business with me your highness?"

"I need some help finding some warm clothing to go in the North Mountain, it appears I have nothing that will be beneficial to my journey, and I'll need it as soon as possible, I'm to meet with Sir Ivan soon and depart."

"Follow me then your highness."

Gerda quickly departed from the kitchen, leaving the staff to finish the preparations for dinner. Anna followed quickly behind trying to keep up.

"It was very nice meeting you Elizabeth," Anna called back, "keep my jacket safe until my return." She left quickly to catch back up with Gerda.

"So princess, if you don't mind me asking, what business do you have in North Mountain?"

"Oh, I'm taking a group of men into the mountain to take care of the Ice Witch who has been behind the disappearances of the people in town."

"That'll finally show Sir Ivan and father that I'm capable of ruling this kingdom, if I bring back her head, they'll stop looking down on me." Anna finished with a fire in her eyes as she clenched her fists.

Gerda remained silent for a very long time as she led Anna to the queen's old chambers.

"What are we doing at mother's old room?"

"You see, the late Queen Idunn, your mother, originally came from a kingdom much farther north than Arendelle, if there is anything warm enough for you to wear, it will be here."

The old maid slowly opened the door to the queen's chambers, releasing the stale air that had been trapped in there from the years of being closed off after the queen's death. Anna hesitantly took a step into the room as Gerda held the door open for her. It was exactly as she remembered it from her childhood, the walls a dark maroon matching the color of the linen bedspread and the deep black furniture of the room made for a menacing look after all these years.

"Let's do this quickly" Anna stated turning back to Gerda before walking all the way into the room and standing tensely in the middle of the large chamber.

"As you wish, your highness."

Gerda talked about Anna's mother as she looked through the drawers and closet for a warm coat or anything useful Anna could take with her on her journey. Recalling all the queen's misadventures in the castle when she first came to Arendelle to be married to the king, and of how she grew to be loved by the people of the kingdom and of Anna's childhood when the queen was still alive.

A tear escaped onto Anna's cheek as she listened to the head maid's words, she could barely remember her mother from her childhood, as she could only recall a feeling of warmth and happiness at the memory of her mother, and the feeling of emptiness at her passing. The princess wiped the tear from her cheek and made her way to the grand closet that her mother had, feeling over the material of all the dresses her mother owned. Her hand stopped when she felt the soft material of fur, when she peered at the piece of clothing she furrowed her brow in confusion. She had never seen this before, the dark grey color of the cloak was not something her mother had ever worn.

"Gerda what's this?" Anna questioned pulling the article from the closet and displaying it across the bed.

"This is the cloak your mother wore when she first arrived here," Gerda answered running her hands through the thick fur of the piece of clothing, "it would be quite useful to your journey, it's very thick and warm, quite heavy though."

"I think I will take it with me" Anna replied off handedly losing herself in the memory of her mother as she draped the cloak around her shoulders. It was indeed heavy that was for sure. The princess smiled fondly to herself as she left the room, Gerda following closely behind her.

"I'll be heading to the barracks, to meet with Sir Ivan," Anna stated. "please have a horse and supplies readied for my journey."

"Yes your highness," Gerda curtsied and departed, "be safe Anna"

Anna almost missed the woman's last words as she strutted through the hall focusing on her route to the barracks. She looked out the second story window toward the guard training courtyard where the barracks resided, it was almost dusk, the sun had started to sink under the mountains, casting an array of colors through the sky; pinks, crimsons, and oranges, all splayed out like the oil paintings of the art gallery of the castle, but the purples had yet to display themselves among the other colors. Shaking herself from the mesmerizing scene, Anna continued her journey down to the barracks.

By the time Anna had made it down the stairs and into the courtyard seven figures were standing in a line awaiting her arrival. She could make out Sir Ivan as he stood a bit out of line from the other six men, but as Anna approached the line she realized most of the "men" the general had gathered were around her age. Most scrawny and in no way guard material, most likely it was a fresh batch of trainees.

"So these are the men you brought for me?" Anna questioned quirking her eyebrow. 'I should've known he'd get back at me in one way or another' the princess internally scolded herself.

"Yes, your highness, these young men want to be guards, and I'm using your little outing as a way to test if they are guard material, I'd like you to evaluate them as you progress about your day."

Anna sized up the six men at a glance, and the only thing she could tell from said first glance was that most of them did not look like guard material, but neither did any of the guards before they went through training. She walked up to the group, holding her hands behind her back, and started at the left side of the line of men.

"Okay well introduce yourselves," Anna ordered using her best commanding royal tone, "we're going to be working together for the next few days as I assess you, apparently, so I'd like to know you a bit more."

The princess nodded towards the first man in line, he seemed well built enough, a bit rough around the edges but otherwise okay, though she noted the look he was giving her, a condescending smirk smeared across his face and a hungry look in his eyes.

"The name's Alexander, though you can call me whatever you want" he finished with a wink as he licked his lips.

'Well we're going to have to fix this real quick' Anna thought as she reared her right fist back and punched the boy directly in his nose sending him to the ground before anyone had time to react.

"Go run laps around the barracks until I call you back," Anna smirked looking down her nose at Alexander, "and when you come back you get to try your introduction again, but with more manners, is that clear?"

Holding his now bleeding nose shut, Alexander nodded silently and got up as he started jogging towards the barracks spewing profanities under his breath as he went along. At his reaction, Anna smiled brightly and turned back to the line watching as they stood straighter as she looked at them. 'Perfect'

"So who's next?"

"Hi!" a short boy, most likely around her age, with extremely scrawny features stood in front of her, "I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs."

He smiled brightly buck teeth standing proudly at attention as he jumped out of line to give the princess a tight embrace. Anna just stood there dumbfounded as she sent a glare towards the general who was trying to hide his chuckling.

"Good to know," she sighed heavily and tousled his short messy dark brown hair, but to her disappointment that didn't seem to register to him as a time to let go.

"I apologize princess," the largest man she had ever seen in her life walked up and pried the boy off of her, "for my older brother, he'll grow on you though." The human mountain finished with a small smile.

"And you are?" Anna asked studying the man's build, he was a few feet taller than her, possibly 7 feet tall, she wasn't sure, but he had muscles, and was well build, all in all she was glad he was on her side.

"My name's Marshall—"

"Marshmallow" Olaf giggled cutting him off and hugging him; Anna wasn't surprised that Olaf's head only made it to Marshall's mid torso.

Marshall sighed then and surrendered under his brother's hugging attack. Anna left it at that and moved down the line to a pair of twins.

"Hi we're Thomas and Gregory," the twin on Anna's right stated pointing to him and his brother, "and we're here as punishment for a crime, but we'll try to behave, right Gregory" The other twin nodded solemnly.

"And why isn't your brother saying anything?" Anna inquired.

"Oh he bad mouthed a lord and got his tongue cut out," Thomas laughed nervously earning a scowl from his brother, "we won't be making that mistake again" he finished with a bow to the princess. Anna gave a quick smile to the both of them and moved on to the last man.

"And last?"

"Your highness," the man stepped forward and bowed deeply to the royal, "my name is Hans, and I look very forward to working with you."

Anna had to force herself to not break her royal visage as she looked over Hans. He was gorgeous, perfect auburn locks, beautiful build, perfectly sculpted face, with groomed sideburns and the most alluring hazel eyes the princess had ever seen. She almost lost herself in him when she looked down the line, her mind snapped back to reality when she realized she was missing one. 'Oh right, Alexander' she grimaced at the thought.

"Alexander" she thundered across the field. The group stood there for a few minutes waiting for Alexander to return, when he did he was heavily panting, though he wasn't holding his nose anymore and the bleeding had stopped. He stopped back in his spot in line next to Olaf, eyes trained on the princess, the hunger was absent from his gaze filled instead by exhaustion.

"Nice of you to join us," Anna walked back to the front of the line, "and you are?"

"My name is Alexander, your highness," he stood then straightening himself from his tired disheveled posture, "and it's a pleasure to meet you."

Anna noticed the smirk was still on his face, but it wasn't an unfriendly one this time. She looked over her group taking in each ones appearance and initial personality, she had a lot of work to do with them, but they seemed pretty okay all around.

"Okay men I hope you're ready for the journey, dress warmly for the North Mountain because we will be leaving within the hour, I'll meet you all at the front gates. Your horses should already be there."

Anna sent one last glare at the general before heading over to the stables where her horse would be waiting for her. She hadn't had much time to mentally think over what this mission would entail. She figured there were certain steps she should follow as a basis for her mission. 'One: Go to North Mountain and figure out what was causing the disappearances, whether bandits or the Ice Witch, whose very existence was questionable at this point in time. Two: Figure out a course of action, utilizing her group's strengths, once she figured them out. Three: Take out the problem by any means necessary.'


	2. A Meeting with Fate (Part 1)

The sun had set by the time Anna made her way back to the stables. Fires had been lit inside lanterns around the stables to illuminate the area, though it didn't help much with the low almost nonexistent glow of the waning moon in the night sky. Anna squinted to make out the silhouette of one of the servants holding on to her horse's reins, her bags securely strapped to it. As she closed in on the figure she realized it was Kai holding the reins of her horse, his friendly smile distorted into a wicked grin by the lights from the lantern's flames dancing across his face. Anna shook the feeling as she approached her beloved companion, gently petting it as she brought a kiss to its nose. The horse whinnied happily shaking its head in response and Anna smiled brightly before turning her attention back to Kai.

"Good evening Kai," Anna said in a reserved tone, petting her horse absentmindedly, "thank you for having Lianna prepared for me."

"My pleasure your highness," Kai responded, "and Gerda informed me that she placed some sweets in the side pack for you on your journey."

The princess grinned widely at the knowledge that she'd have chocolate on her trip. She scanned the sky again pointing out the constellations she saw in her mind, it was getting pretty late, the moon steadily climbing into the sky.

"Well, I should be heading out now," she sighed heavily, "my hour is almost up, and I need to go to the front gate."

Anna adjusted her mother's thick fur coat and took the reins from Kai, waving at the man before leading her companion to the front gates of Arendelle castle to meet up with her men.

The walk to the front gates was peaceful, there were no lanterns along the lower castle walls so Anna had to make her way back by memory. A cold wintry breeze brushed against her as she walked but with her mother's coat it felt refreshing in a way, she sighed contently brushing her bangs out of her face, only to have them fall right back into place, and picked up her pace to the front gates.

Upon arrival to the gates she heard the muffled shouts of her men as she saw their silhouettes crowding around one of the horses, the rest of the horses packed and left standing together. Anna began jogging over to the group, Lianna trotting behind her to keep up, and whistled at the men to gain their attention.

"What's going on out here?"

"This one can't even get on his horse, your highness" Alexander huffed as he walked up to meet halfway with Anna and pointed back at Olaf.

The princess looked over Alexander's shoulder to see a figure sprawled over the saddle of the surrounded horse, caught in a fit of a giggles. Anna exhaled slowly, putting on her royal mask as she swallowed down the laughter that threatened to escape her throat at the situation. She gave a quick nod to Alexander before giving him Lianna's reins and gesturing for him to put her companion with the rest of the horses. He bowed quickly to her before leading her horse away.

She inhaled deeply puffing out her chest as she walked briskly over to Olaf and the rest of her men. They parted when they saw her approach so she could easily make her way to the horse Olaf was trying, to no avail, to get onto.

"Go help Alexander double check that we have everything for our journey" Anna pointed to the twins and Hans to indicate who the command was directed towards.

The twins nodded in unison before dashing over to the other horses who all were packed with supplies identical to the packs situated on the princess' horse, minus her special stash of chocolate. Anna gave a last glance over to the horses before walking up to Olaf's horse and removing the small young man from his mount that had begun fidgeting and moving around in a way that signaled to Anna that he might break into a panic soon. She threw Olaf a pointed look before making her way to the front of his horse. Patting the beast's shoulder lovingly, Anna cupped the horse's muzzle resting her head gently on his as she whispered reassurances to the horse to calm it down. It pricked its ears in the princess' direction and slowly relaxed huffing slightly before it came to a standstill.

"There we go" she cooed petting the horse's neck.

"So what seems to be the problem here?" Anna asked sternly as she turned back to Olaf.

"My apologies your hi—" the younger brother started before being curtly cut off by Anna.

"I rather hear it from Olaf if you don't mind."

Olaf walked forward distancing himself from his brother, his posture clearly nervous as he clasped his hands tightly in front of himself.

"I'm sorry Princess Anna, I'm having trouble getting on the horse." He looked up at Anna with the biggest puppy dog eyes she had ever seen before, she had to fight back the urge to turn away from his pleading gaze.

"Have you never ridden a horse before, Olaf?" she coughed into her fist. Both brothers shook their heads in response to her question.

"I see."

"You know how to ride a horse I hope, Marshall."

"I do your highness" Marshall replied gruffly.

"Well good then, though we do not have the extra time to teach Olaf how to ride a horse," she hummed to herself in thought, "so he will ride with me and his horse will be tied to yours since we need the supplies still."

"Do either of you oppose this idea?"

Marshall stood rigid behind Olaf, tension setting in on his posture. Olaf just vigorously shook his head a small smile on his face. Anna gave them both a curt nod before turning around and making her way back to the horses leading Olaf's horse back with her. They both followed behind the princess, Olaf skipping next to his stoic brother who was eyeing him worriedly.

"Is everything we need packed?" Anna asked as they came closer to the horses.

"Yes, your highness" the group answered in ill-timed unison.

"Good" She went over to her companion's saddle bag and pulled out a coil of rope before tying a large noose on both ends of the thick thread. After tying the knots she threw one end over the head of Marshall's horse and the other end over Olaf's mount.

"Make sure you keep up okay" She spoke lovingly at Olaf's horse giving it a quick kiss to the nose before turning back to the others.

Walking over to Lianna she told her men to mount as they would be heading out on their journey now. She called Olaf to her and lifted the small man, with little exertion on her part, onto the horse before quickly climbing on after adjusting her sword out of the way as she situated herself behind him. Her men quickly mounted their horses after her and positioned their horses behind the princess.

"Try to be quiet as we head through the town, there's no reason to wake the citizens at this time of night" she called back to her men as they set off across the massive stone bridge that divided Arendelle castle from the town it resided in.

The group moved swiftly through the town, no one speaking as they galloped through the cobblestone streets. Anna silently thanked the gods for the preferable weather as they made their way towards the end of town. Though the wind was cold as it whisked past the group she was glad it wasn't snowing except for a few stray snowflakes that made their way down from the heavens. Anna pulled the reins of her horse stopping abruptly as they came to the edge of the forest, positioning her horse so that she could speak to her men. Her men halted quickly and sent confused and questioning glances at one another, their horses kicking up snow, neighing in protest as they tried not to collide with each other.

"Why have we stopped your highness?" Hans questioned as he slid his hand through his windblown hair to set it back into place.

Anna stared at him blankly before a soft chuckle from Olaf shook her from her trance.

"Thank you for asking Hans," she smiled, "I have stopped so as to give you a rundown of what our course of action will be on this mission and/or test run that I will be giving you." They all nodded in unison waiting for the princess to go on.

"This will be a three day trip; day one, we will make our way to the clearing which is halfway between Arendelle and the North Mountain and will train the following day so I can assess your strengths and weaknesses," Anna saw a smirk form on Alexander's face at the prospect of showing off, "day two, will be the day we make it to North Mountain and investigate the perpetrator behind the town's missing persons and take care of said problem, if it is deemed reasonable. And day three is the trek back home from North Mountain."

"Sounds good to me," Alexander snorted smugly, "just hope you lot don't embarrass yourselves when you have to train next to me." His signature smirk returned to his face.

"Don't think I can do any worse than getting punched in the face within the first minute of meeting someone" Thomas retorted earning a laugh from the whole group, a scowl forming on Alexander's face at the comment.

Anna hid her chuckle behind a cough as she commanded the attention of the group back to herself.

"I'm pleased that you're so enthusiastic Alexander, but you'll all be fighting me, not each other," Anna smirked, chest slightly puffing out as her groups' eyes all widened in shock, "now let's be on our way, I want to be to the clearing before day break."

Finishing her speech she snapped Lianna's reins and headed into the forest. Her men quickly snapped out of their stupor and followed behind her through the generously spaced dying trees that called this forest their home.

The ride up to the clearing was rather enjoyable to the princess, she kept at the front leading the group, occasionally readjusting Olaf in front of her whenever he leaned to far one way or another on her horse. And she listened intently to conversations going on behind her. Most of the time it was Alexander and Thomas bickering back and forth with each other along with some light hearted banter, and occasionally when she looked back she could see Gregory silently agreeing with almost whatever his brother was saying at the time. During one short conversation Anna made out Hans' voice through the wind as he tried to make conversation with Marshall, the conversation didn't last long though since the larger man gave short vague answers to the auburn. Which at receiving the cold shoulder from Marshall, Alexander and Thomas decided to coax Hans into joining their current conversation on the merits of having prostitutes working at or around taverns and how it was good for the soul and the kingdom's economy. Anna huffed air at the conversation not deeming it worthy of her attention, until the group brought the conversation to her.

"So princess," Alexander started ushering his horse until it rode alongside Anna's, "have you ever been down to the taverns in Arendelle?"

"Of course not" she replied quickly adjusting Olaf again as he leaned in too close to Alexander.

"That's a real shame your highness," Thomas started as he quickened up his pace to get into the conversation, "I figured you were the type to have some fun now and then, there's a lot of entertainment there, they have something for whatever you fancy." A devious grin formed on Gregory's face as he came up next to his brother.

"I have no desire to know what you're implying with that, but as a royal and only heir to the throne, I have certain expectations to uphold and duties that have to be carried out, I have no time to go to the taverns or do anything unheard of with maidens or men. Not that I'm interested in maidens anyway." She snapped the reins again and burst off ahead of the group taking the lead again. Everyone quieted down after that save for Alexander and Thomas whispering to each other. Sighing heavily Anna settled in back to her thoughts as she navigated Lianna through the trees. 'It's not like I'd mind going to a tavern, the servants seem to have good times there from what I've heard' the princess mused. Anna was shaken from her thoughts when she caught eye of an 'X' carved into the trunk of one of the trees she was passing, and also took note of the ever thickening snow in front her.

"We're almost there, most likely only a half-hour away now, though we'll have to slow down for the thickening snow, so I'd estimate we'll be to the clearing in an hour."

"Good," Thomas called from behind, most likely directing the comment at Gregory or Alexander, "my backside is starting to go numb, I'm not used to this much horse travel."

Everyone nodded in agreement except for Hans, who appeared to be as comfortable atop his horse as he would be sitting in a plush chair, and Marshall who was keeping a watchful eye on Olaf. Anna caught Marshall's eye before turning to see why he was staring so intently at his brother. Looking down at Olaf she saw his dark brown hair and the head it covered slowly nodding off to the side as quiet snores escaped him. She sighed kneading her gloved fingers into her temple before gently shaking Olaf's shoulder being careful not to push him off the horse.

"Hey, you need to stay awake until we get to camp, we're almost there." She coaxed him awake and he nodded in affirmation rubbing at his eyes.

"Awww, poor baby needs to rest and go beddy-by" Alexander snorted loudly. He was about to continue when Marshall guided his horse next to Alexander's and grabbed the man by the collar causing the whole group to stop.

Marshall didn't say anything to Alexander, just stared into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity to everyone before throwing Alexander off his mount and into two feet of powdery snow. Emerging from the snow indent of his fall slightly shivering from the cold contact to his skin, Alexander climbed back up onto his horse and brushed the remaining powder from his shoulders, a frown replacing his normal smirk.

"Hey sure beats a bloody nose eh?" Thomas laughed giving the frowning man a hard pat to the shoulder.

"Shut up"

"You sure have a way with people" Hans commented from the back of the group.

"Whatever, let's just get to the clearing."

"As you wish, your grumpiness" Anna chimed in with the taunting.

Everyone went silent, all eyes fixed on Anna, shock clearly displayed on their features, giving her a long moment to fidget nervously in her saddle, someone's chuckle broke the tense air and following it, a chorus of everyone else's laughter chimed in. Anna exhaled a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Don't worry your highness," Alexander said noticing the princess' nervousness, "just like with all things, being funny takes practice."

"Unless you're a natural at it like me." Thomas added with expert timing.

She smiled back at them before resuming their journey, going at a much slower pace now as Lianna was trekking through the knee deep snow. Anna had to shake Olaf every so often to make sure that he didn't fall asleep, but other than that the rest of the trip fell back into a peaceful lull. Thomas and Gregory were trying to coax Alexander out of his now grumpy mood, Marshall was silent the rest of the time though he almost nodded off a few times before shaking himself awake, and Hans was listening intently to whatever was being said in the conversations in our group, a small smile plastered on his face.

Anna halted the group with a gesture of her hand as they reached the clearing. The snow was visibly shallower here, which the princess was extremely thankful for after their long journey, it would make the next order of business that much easier. Asking Olaf to hold onto the reins of her horse she jumped off gracefully landing in the crisp snow below her. She noted that its deepness went to the height of her shins, before she began walking deeper into the clearing. A smile made its way to the princess' face as she relished the crunch sound of the snow with each step she took. She stopped her walking when they made it to the approximate center of the wide open area.

"This is the fun part now," she told her group, "we have to clear an area for ourselves, so start digging the snow out of the way."

"Alexander, Thomas, Gregory, and Olaf, you will be staying here clearing a space for our things and setting up camp, don't get lazy on me because I do not wish to sleep on top of cold, wet snow. Hans and Marshall, you're coming with me to go collect firewood so we can try and keep warm tonight."

Her group nodded affirmative before dismounting and leading their horses to an area where some grass was visible for the horses to graze on. Marshall and Hans soon joined up with Anna after she helped Olaf down from the saddle and sent him to where Gregory and Thomas had started a make shift snowball fight.

"Hey make sure you actually do your job," Anna called back as they walked to the edge of where the forest resumed, "the ground better be spotless of snow when we get back."

They all called back affirmatives as the firewood searching team went out of ear shot.

Marshall, Hans, and Anna walked off in different directions collecting as many dry pieces of wood as they could find. They stayed within earshot of each other and talked about trivial things so that they knew where the others were at all times. Marshall, and Hans met back up with Anna in the center of their self-made perimeter of collecting area after they had collected a good amount of wood in the designated area.

"Let's move on to the next area," Anna suggested heaving her carried wood back into place, "it's only a couple paces beyond here and we can head back to camp afterward."

Hans and Marshall both nodded behind their stacks and followed after the princess.

"So how much older is Olaf than you, Marshall?" Anna asked when she noticed the walk was starting to get eerily quiet in the dark hours of the night.

"Three years older, your highness"

"What! That many I thought he was possibly only a couple months older or something." She exclaimed loudly into the night air. Startling a few woodland creatures that scattered at the sound of her voice.

"I don't mean to be disrespectful your highness," Marshall began, "but please cease talking." His body tensed and he peered around their surroundings, though Anna didn't notice as she huffed disdainfully at his comment.

"I'm not buying it, not for a minu—" she was cut off by his large hand covering her mouth. His eyes pleading with her to quiet down. So she did, wondering what had caused the sudden chill in the group's atmosphere. She listened in on the dark forest hoping to hear whatever Marshall had, though if there was something out there they'd have to react perfectly, the darkness of the forest putting them at a heavy disadvantage. A feral scream erupted as a figure flew out from the darkness, their makeshift weapon aimed straight for Anna. She tried to draw her sword in time, dropping the wood pile at her feet, though the leather clasp covering the hilt proved to be a deadly mistake. And during this eternal second Anna had the time to analyze the situation clearly, her mind emptying, white noise playing in her consciousness at the sight of a half dozen men emerging from the shadows.

But before the man's rusted knife made contact with Anna, Marshall had managed to get in between them and throw his pile of wood at the attacker knocking him to the ground. Anna drew her sword from its scabbard, her brain snapping to attention and began fighting with her attackers. Another rather tall muscular man came charging at her, she easily sidestepped his advance, slapping the black iron frying pan from his grasp with the flat of her blade and sending the hilt of her blade into the back of his neck effectively knocking the brute out. She turned to see Marshall intimidating two men down into submission, and Hans standing in the middle of crimson colored snow, two limp bodies at his feet as he attacked mercilessly at the last man standing. The man was clearly out matched and at the receiving end of the auburn's brutality. A cold shiver made its way through Anna as she starred shocked at the serene features gracing Han's face as he stabbed the last man through the back after deliberately throwing him into the snow. The princess' features quickly jumped to alarm as she saw Hans make his way over to the men by Marshall.

"Woah, it's over Hans they can't do anything anymore, we're fine now" Anna reasoned running in front of him and placing a firm palm to his blood covered chest. He blinked in response as his features visibly loosened.

"I-I'm sorry your highness," he stated, his eyes softening as they gazed at the girl in front of him, "I seem to have gotten caught in the moment." He laughed half-heartedly sliding a gloved hand through his hair.

She withdrew her gloved hands from his chest, noticing the still warm blood that now covered them. Anna turned quickly ignoring the nauseous feeling that seemed to settle in her stomach and made her way to the last two men who were sitting nervously under Marshall's watchful gaze.

"So it would seem bandits really were the cause behind the town's disappearances" Anna reasoned aloud as she came up to the men. A sigh escaping her at the slight disappointment of the mundane turn of events.

"What have you done with the missing citizens of Arendelle. Speak." She commanded pointing her sword at their throats.

"We're not bandits your highness" One said, the other nodding fervently in agreement.

Anna took in their appearances, the one who spoke was on the thin side, slightly torn clothes, and hollowed features. The other was thick, not overly thick like some of the dignitaries that visited Arendelle on occasion, but portly in a sense.

"Not bandits," the princess rolled the words around in her mouth, "you have a funny way of proving otherwise."

"We apologize," the stout man began, lowering his gaze, "we've been lost and stranded in this forest for a few weeks, we have no supplies, and we were just desperate from hunger."

"We were travelers before this, Tim and Joseph were traders travelling with us through the North Mountain."

"That would explain the frying pan."

Hans and Olaf gave her a questioning look at the mention of the kitchen utensil. She ignored their looks and focused on the men.

"They could be lying your highness," Marshall said, "they shouldn't be hungry with all the game that's running through this forest, we could probably feed the orphanage in Arendelle for a whole month with just the animals I've seen on our short trip." The princess quirked an eyebrow as she contemplated Marshall's logic, he did have point, unless their whole group had poor hunters, though that didn't seem likely.

"We were catching game until the Ice Witch started sending her snow golems after anyone who killed animals within her territory, we started off with eleven people in our party."

The captured men shivered visibly as the memory of what they had witnessed danced behind their eyes.

"So it is the Ice Witch!" Anna exclaimed loudly a grin erupting on her face until she realized her outburst.

"Well despite the rough meeting, if you tell me where the sorceress resides I will give you a map and a horse to get you to Arendelle where you can do what you will from there."

Both men perked at the princess' offer, a deep gratitude displayed in their eyes. Anna smiled brightly at them offering a hand to help them up from the snow.

"Now that that's over we can collect our wood and head back to camp, oh, and Marshall can you carry back their friend over there, he's unconscious"

Marshall nodded and went to retrieve the man draping his bulky form across his shoulders, wearing the man like a cape and dragging him along behind the group. The two new additions to their group shuffled around picking up the mass amount of firewood that littered the snow around them. The walk back was tense but quick, the two travelers keeping a fair distance away from Hans, mostly making conversation between themselves or otherwise talking to Marshall or Anna.

When they arrived back at the clearing Anna, to her pleasant surprise, found the campsite set up with a wide area of snowless ground around it and large piles of snow packed a nice distance away from the camp. A grin setting on her face as she made out the figures of Alexander and the twins playing cards.

"Ah finally," Alexander called when he saw the group, "startup that fire so I can see the cards right, I'm getting a headache from squinting at them so much." Thomas chuckled from his spot across from Alexander nodding his head in agreement to Alexander's statement.

"Where is Olaf?" Marshall asked sternly dragging his unconscious baggage to the campsite before unceremoniously dropping him.

"Oh he's fine" Thomas started.

"Yeah, the little guy just fell asleep a while ago, not that I can blame him, he's the one who moved most of the snow before we even started working, I was quite impressed."

The huge man sighed in relief before heading into the tents to check on his elder brother. Anna quirked a surprised brow at the compliment before settling into the area. Throughout the next half hour, Anna and Hans went about starting up a fire in the middle of the campsite. Their new companions retired soon after that taking one of the extra blankets and curling up around their unconscious friend.

Marshall emerged from the tent after a while and sat down around the fire with Hans and Anna who were discussing the personalities of Hans' twelve older brothers.

"So what's your story?" Hans asked as soon as he finished.

"Yeah I want to know too," Alexander called from the designated playing card area, "why did a small man like Olaf decide to join the guard, I'm assuming it's linked to your reason for joining, since you're brothers?"

Anna saw a look of pain and sadness cross the large man's features as he gazed into the sky.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to" She said in a quiet gentle tone.

"It's fine your highness," he replied a sad smile on his face, "after all we're a team now. You might as well know." After a quick pause he took a quick breath closing his eyes as he collected his thoughts. Then upon opening them he sighed and started talking as he gazed blankly into the fire.

"So to start off Olaf and I joined the guard for the safety of it, that might seem ironic I guess, since once you're a guard you are expected to fight and battle and die for your kingdom. But when you're starving and living on the streets, a promise of a bed and routine meals is worth the dangers afterward." A hollow chuckle escaped him then, and everyone stared intently at him, immediately sucked into his tale waiting for him to continue. "We survived for ten years on the streets before joining the guard, eating scraps if we could even find that, living in the gutter, I worked a few odd jobs now and then when I was old enough to get money to eat, but nobody likes street rat kids around so that never helped much. We would sometimes go a whole week without eating anything." Everyone ignored the crack in Marshall's voice and the tears escaping his eyes without his noticing. "And all the while my brother smiled, trying to cheer me up and look on the bright side of it all. Taking care of me whenever I got sick, always giving what little food we got to me saying I needed to grow strong for the both of us. I feel guilty every time I look at him, it's my fault he's so small." Marshall couldn't continue after that, silent sobs closing his throat as he hid his head in his arms shoulders shaking in rhythm with his heavy breathing. The group remained silent for what seemed like hours, crestfallen faces watching the usually stoic man shake under the pressure of his memories.


	3. A Meeting with Fate (Part 2)

Anna awoke early the next morning, her rough sleeping arrangements along with the sunlight filtering through her tent made it impossible for her to sleep any longer. She stretched hearing a few gratifying pops of her back before she pulled her tent curtain out of the way and climbed out. The fresh morning air was a drastic contrast to the warmth of her fur blankets in the tent and she pulled her black cloak tightly around her to block the breeze. As Anna squinted from the painfully bright rays of the sun she heard muffled chuckling from a distant area of the clearing. Shielding her eyes she peered around walking in the direction of the noise until she saw Marshall and Olaf who were playing in the snow, several variously sized snow angels indented in the area around them.

"Good m-morning y-your highness" Marshall greeted quickly trying to hide his laughter behind his hand.

"Your hair looks ridiculous" Olaf snorted rolling over into the snow.

Marshall nudged him in the ribs gently trying to get his brother to cease talking, but Anna's eyes widened in horror at the realization of what they was most likely seeing. Anna reached up to her head trying to feel out how horrendous her hair had become from her tossing and turning during the night. Her lips went into a deep frown when she felt how bad it was.

"When you came out of your tent I thought it was catching on fire" the small man added his eyes watering as he grasped at his stomach trying to take air into his lungs between fits of laughter.

Anna sprinted back into her tent scattering her belongings around until she found her brush under her pillow. She quickly ran it through her hair taming it back into her neat bun before exiting. She stood straight as she exited brushing imaginary dust from her uniform, tidying it up as she made her way back to the two brothers. She eyed them seriously as she returned but deflated the moment she got close enough to see their eyes, they were both still laughing hard, trying to calm down from their fits.

"Okay if you don't tell everyone else about this I'll share my stash of chocolates with you" She tried to bargain with them. She looked around nervously making sure no one else was up to have seen her morning appearance before turning back to them and pleading for them to accept.

Olaf stilled at the mention of chocolate, his eyes gleaming in anticipation at the taste of the sweet. He nodded enthusiastically in acceptance of the princess' proposal.

"So you two won't breathe a word about this?" She questioned.

"Not even a syllable" Marshall replied as he smiled up at her putting a fist to his heart as a mark of his promise.

'Well he seems to be doing better' Anna thought as she raced over to her horse grabbing her chocolate stash from Lianna's side bag then returned back to Olaf and Marshall.

"Okay so two pieces for you," she handed the chocolates to Marshall, "two pieces for you," she handed Olaf his chocolates, "and three pieces for me." Anna smiled brightly as she dropped the cold, hard sweets into her mouth and let them warm there. Olaf yelped in pain then he tried to bite straight into the chocolate.

"You shuld le' the choc-lat melt in yo mouth befoe chewin'" Anna said around her mouthful of candies.

The three sat there in silence for few minutes as they let the small chocolates thaw in their mouth. Anna gazed up at the sky during that time admiring the clear weather, 'This'll be perfect for training, it'll be warmer by the time we start training and it doesn't look like it'll snow at all today'.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better this morning Marshall" Anna said leisurely after she had finally chewed and swallowed her treat.

"Wha?" Olaf looked at his brother with a perplexed look, "Were you not feeling well last night, I shouldn't have fallen asleep I'm sorry." His face grew worried but Marshall just smiled down at him using his hands to mold Olaf's face into a smile.

"Don't worry big brother, I feel a lot better now so don't frown, I'm fine."

Olaf threw a handful of snow at Marshall to get him to let go of his face and Anna sat back laughing at their sibling antics.

"Okay, calm down, we have to get ready for today's training and I don't want you tired before we even begin." Anna commanded loudly after the brother's banter turned into an intense snowball fight.

Anna went through the camp waking her men from their slumber. Some awoke better than others; Alexander yawned and grumbled under his breath about the ungodly hour, Hans came out of his tent with a tired smile and a quick stretch, and the twins were bickering about who hogged the tent more during the night. The group lined up quickly in front of the princess waiting for her to speak.

"As of last night we have information on the missing citizens," Anna began hands held respectfully behind her back as she paced in front of her men, "we now know that it_ is_ the Ice Witch that is attacking passing trading caravans. As for her location and any extra information we may need, I plan on getting it as soon as our guests wake up. Until then I suggest you start preparing for training, it'll be rough, I have to make sure we're ready for tonight's attack."

She dismissed them momentarily as she went to prepare for the first test, she walked over to her horse who was grazing with the other horses and grabbed a hefty bag filled with guard weapons. There were a few weapons to choose from, there were the standard plain swords that most of the guard used, a few poleaxes, and one huge and heavy battle hammer. Anna speculated that Sir Ivan had put the hammer in there specifically for Marshall, he was most likely the only one who would be able to wield it in their group. She moved the weapons, taking a few trips to do so, to the area where she wanted her group to train and placed them on the ground.

Once she was done with that task she headed back to the campsite and went about waking up the three weary travelers.

"Once you have your armor head over to the weapons I've placed in our test area and pick out the weapon you want to use."

The sleeping travelers woke startled at the loud commanding voice of the princess as she barked orders to her men. The previously unconscious man of their party groaned as he sat up tenderly feeling the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry about that," Anna started when she noticed the man inspecting his injuries, "anyway, before I send you off I wanted to ask you a few things that will hopefully to help us out on mission."

The men nodded as they got up and put together their blankets to pack up.

"We will answer as best we can your highness" the stout man stated quickly.

"Where is the Ice Witch hiding, and do you know of anything else that may have to help us fair better in battle against her?"

"I wouldn't call it hiding you're highness," The big man laughed, "she is in a giant palace made of ice at the top peak of the mountain."

"If she is so easy to find why has no one stopped her yet, I'm sure others have tried before us?"

"No one can, they all get slaughtered the moment they step into the area of the palace, the snow reacts to the Witch's will and any who step on the snow around her palace are attacked."

The group grew silent after that, the men drawing in on themselves while Anna was contemplating a course of action to accommodate this new information. There was no taking her palace through sheer force like she originally planned, she'd have to think of different alternatives before they set out that night. And no amount of extra men would help, so there was no reason to go back to Arendelle and ask for assistance.

"Thank you for your information, it might just save our lives," the princess said in her royal tone, "now gentlemen follow me so we can give you an extra horse and you can be on your way back down to Arendelle, the map back will be in the left compartment of the saddle."

Anna walked over to the group of horses, then grabbed the reins of Olaf's horse before handing it to one of the men.

"Just let me go grab the correct saddle and you can be on your way."

She ran back to the camp and grabbed Olaf's saddle, which she distinguished from the others based on the new leathery scent that the others didn't have from being used the night prior. Jogging back over to the travelers Anna quickly hoisted the saddle onto the horse and secured it. The men bowed to the princess deeply giving her their gratitude before walking off into the forest in the direction of Arendelle.

Anna loosened her posture after they were out of sight and sighed, she'd have to ration the rest of their supplies for the return home now after sending the men off with the food and tools Olaf's saddle-pack had in it. She then turned and headed back to the camp area to grab her sword from her tent. As she withdrew from her tent, her sword in her hand, she marveled at the beautiful craftsmanship of the jeweled hilt. She had only received the sword recently from her father as recognition of her right to the throne and as a gift for her completed training in the art of swordsmanship. The hilt was lined with gold, finely cut sapphires and emeralds littered the hilt in a simple pattern, but Anna's favorite part of the sword was the large white opal jewel that was cut into the shape of the Arendelle crocus that was the centerpiece. After admiring her sword she made her way over to the training area where her men were. She noted their different behavior as she walked up to the group, Olaf, Marshall, and Hans were standing diligently at the ready, waiting for the princess while Alexander and the twins were lounging around in the snow and talking. 'Well if I'm testing them then Alexander and the twins are getting minus points for lack of focus and seriousness.'

"I see half of you are ready for training" Anna stated as she walked up, towering over the sitting men and glaring down at them.

Breathy chuckles escaped the sitting men's lips as they mumbled apologies and got up to stand with their comrades.

"Okay I'll be assessing you in a number of categories today, each of which is very important for a prospective guard to have, you will get either a minus or plus for each thing I assess you in and if you get 5 points or more by the end of the day then I will deem you fit to join the guard, sound fair?"

They all nodded in agreement listening intently to Anna.

"And as a last note to this, since this is pre-training accomplishment of the mission is worth 2 points, so as long as you get 3 points in training you will be fine."

"To start off with Olaf, Marshall and Hans you three get a point for diligently awaiting my arrival to the area as I took care of our guests," Anna complimented to the men who smiled at her before turning to the twins and Alexander, "as for you three, you all get minus a point of playing around, putting your scores in the negatives."

"What, that's not even fair, we didn't know you were testing yet" Alexander argued.

"Minus another point for talking back to your superiors," Anna sighed rubbing at her temples, "you have to learn to control your attitude Alexander, it'll get you in trouble one of these days."

The boy fumed in place, forcibly keeping his mouth shut so he couldn't cause any more trouble. Anna continued to talk making note that Alexander was at least learning slowly in the manners department.

"Okay our first exercise/test will be combat, guards have to know how to fight and defend themselves for obvious reasons, this isn't a fight to the death and everyone will get a point for this exercise since guard training teaches how to fight, but I want to assess your proficiency with weapons for our mission and so that I can help you."

"So for right now everyone grab a weapon and get ready, which I see most of you have already done, and Marshall your weapon will be the hammer which I think Sir Ivan placed in the bundle specifically for you."

Marshall nodded and grabbed the hammer after everyone else had grabbed their weapon of choice, he lifted it with some initial exertion but it stayed nicely in his hands once he adjusted to the weight.

"Who wants to go first?"

Alexander walked up confidently in response moving his sword around his body as he got accustomed to the feel of it. The princess nodded in recognition to his offer and walked a few paces away from the group getting ready for their mock battle. When she felt comfortable with the space between them and the group she turned around finding that her opponent was already charging her. 'Taking the initiative, I'm quite impressed' she thought as she blocked his first high blow that was aimed for her shoulder, 'and he's going for killing blows'. She blocked the next quick slash aimed for her side and pushed the blade away from her sending Alexander slightly off balance. Her eyebrow quirked as she analyzed his fighting, his blows were strong and precise, he had a good handle of the blade, but his foot work seemed sloppy. She smirked as she readied herself for his next attack, she knew he'd charge at her once he regained his footing. And sure enough after he caught himself from his stumble he charged at her, blade ready to attack his opponent or defend against one, as he got closer he lunged at her, Anna blocked the blade quickly diverting the blow to the ground and quickly ducked down and knocked Alexander onto his back with a smooth sweeping kick. To signal the end of their test she sheathed her sword and extended a hand to her opponent to help him up. He took it gratefully and she heaved him up.

"Your enthusiasm to attack is very admirable and your skill with a blade is exceptional, but you need to work a great deal on your balance so that you aren't knocked off your feet so easily." She smiled at him as they walked back to the group and Alexander joined the men in their line.

"That's the second time you've gotten knocked onto your ass in a week, how do you feel about that?" Thomas jibbed.

"Why don't you find out?" Anna offered with a smirk before Alexander could retort. Thomas swallowed nervously as he stepped up, Gregory smirking along with Alexander behind him.

"You'll be after him, Gregory" Anna called back as she walked back to her previous spot away from the group.

Once she got there she turned around to find Thomas waiting on her in a clearly defensive stance. 'Waiting on me to attack this time?' she pondered as they started circling one another looking for an opening, 'Hope you're ready for it'. Anna lunged forward and swung downward at Thomas hoping to catch him off guard, he jumped back dodging the blow and recollected himself quickly to strike back at Anna. Anna blocked the blow to her side with some effort before trying to sweep Thomas' legs out from under him. To her surprise he jumped over the kick and backed a safe distance away from Anna.

"I'm not going to fall for that trick."

Anna smirked quickly at the remark before getting back in position for her next attack. 'He's a very good fighter, he blocks well and anticipates what his opponent is going to do' A plan formulated in her mind as she rolled over the words she thought, he anticipates his opponents attack. They started circling each other again, this time Anna beginning to close the distance between them very slowly, waiting for if he would attack or not. After a few moments of this Anna decided she would have to go to him. She charged him full speed, slightly unnerving him, before ducking down like she was going to sweep kick him. He anticipated the move and jumped up out of the way, Anna smirked when he fell for the ruse, and before Thomas could land the princess dropped her sword in the snow and lunged her shoulder into her opponent's chest, knocking the wind from him. When they both fell to the ground Anna straddled his body and grabbed his wrists, pinning them to the ground.

"Do you yield?"

Thomas nodded quickly unable to speak as he tried to force air back into his lungs. Anna quickly got off him relieving his chest of her weight and helped him up. As they walked back to the group she picked her sword up from the snow and dusted the powdered snow from its blade and hilt.

"Your ability to anticipate an attack is quite impressive, not many have it," Anna smiled at him, "but if you anticipate too much and can't react to things it might put you in danger."

He nodded respectfully still clutching at his chest and traded positions with Gregory who began walking over to the spot Anna had been starting the matches at. As she turned to head after Gregory she caught the faintest hint of a triumphant smile settled in on Thomas' face, a cold chill shot through her body when she saw it. Shaking off the unnerving feeling she strolled over to the match area bringing up her sword as a signal to start the match. Anna noted that Gregory had grabbed a poleaxe from the weapon stash, 'I wonder what his fighting style is, those weapons are usually used for distance so I should keep the fight close range to keep it to my advantage.' Raising her sword to a lunging position she dashed towards Gregory only to find him charging at her in the same moment, she scrunched her face in concentration to react to what he might do. Getting within 5 feet of each other Anna stopped in shock when Gregory threw his poleaxe as her with every ounce of his strength. She narrowly dodged it watching it in what seemed like slow motion as it flew past her side, and when she turned back Gregory quickly grabbed her arms, squeezing painfully until she dropped her sword before kicking her feet out from under her, dropping her into the snow.

"Well you certainly threw me for a loop." Anna laughed as she let Gregory help her up. He just nodded as recognition that she had spoken to him and they went back to the group, both picking up their weapons. Anna brushed the snow from her uniform when they got back to the group.

"As reward for besting me in the match you get an extra point Gregory, and next up will be Olaf"

Olaf walked up nervously, strain written across his face as he had trouble keeping his sword lifted. They walked out into the field, Anna cursing herself along the way as she anticipated the immediate outcome of the battle, she had to be fair by not going easy on him, but she hoped she wouldn't hurt him.

"Are you ready Olaf?"

He nodded with determination etching his features, he charged at her sword slightly dragging in the snow behind him. Anna waited for his attack deciding it best to defend against it. His swing was wide and sloppy and Anna saw a great many openings to attack him, she blocked the blade with her own and disarmed him with a swift motion sending his blade flying into the air and landing a few feet behind him. Realizing his easy defeat his features became crestfallen and his shoulders slumped slightly.

"You tried your hardest Olaf, that's nothing to be ashamed of" Anna told him as she lightly squeezed his shoulder in an effort to comfort him.

They returned quickly, Olaf running to retrieve his sword and hauling it back before standing in line next to Marshall who patted his back with a small smile on his face. Anna pondered quickly who she should test next, Hans and Marshall would both be exceptional, she knew Hans had swordsmanship skills due to his noble background and Marshall would be hard to take down with his size and weapon.

"If it would please you your highness, I will volunteer to challenge you next" Hans offered drawing his own sword that he brought with him from home. The sword he held was quite beautiful in its own right, it did not have the jewels that Anna's had but the gold metalworking of the hilt was impressive and curved around the handle to make an excellent guard for the wielder.

The pair walked leisurely out onto the field both collecting themselves and getting into similar fighting positions. Anna realized quickly she'd have to be the first one to attack, as he waited on her calmly. As she closed the distance between them, the memory of Hans standing above two dead bodies with that same calm expression fluttered behind her eyes. She shivered internally a slight twang of fear ringing through her, she doused the fear by reasoning that this was a testing match and nothing harmful could happen. As she reached him she attacked his shoulder with a precise stab, he blocked easily and retaliated only to have her block him in return. The exchange of blows lasted for what seemed like hours no one having the clear upper hand, and Anna figured the match would keep going on like this until someone tired out first. 'But we have a full day of training to get done and do not have the time to continue on like this.' She backed away a few feet from the battle before sheathing her sword as a signal for Hans to stop. Seeing that the match was over he fixed the princess with a questioning gaze before sheathing his sword as well.

"We can keep going like this for hours I'm assuming," she reasoned to Hans, "but we have too much to do before tonight to be taking any extra time out on a testing match, I can see you are very skilled with your weapon."

He nodded in acceptance as they walked back to the group Marshall walking out to meet Anna halfway with his hammer resting gently on his shoulder.

"Before we begin, I want to thank you for not hurting my brother" Marshall spoke in a hushed tone before readying himself.

'I need to be on the offensive end for this match, hammers may be great for attacking, but they aren't very useful for blocking' she thought before nodding in acceptance to Marshall's words.

Anna ran at Marshall feeling slightly intimidated by the fact that the closer she came towards him the larger he seemed to grow until he was completely towering over her. He sent a blow with his hammer towards Anna letting gravity give the weapon extra power, Anna rolled out of the way panting heavily, the back to back matches starting to take their toll. She'd have to make this match quick or she was sure she'd lose, 'I can't knock him off balance, but if I can disarm him and get him to yield' she nodded in agreement to her own thought before charging back at Marshall who was awaiting her next attack. Before she could get in position to disarm him he'd thrown a sideways blow to her ribcage and she had to use both hands to brace herself from the blow before getting knocked into the snow. She stood up again shakily, her hair starting to stick out from its neat bun as she rushed towards him a third time. She took note of his sturdy wide stance as he readied his hammer for another attack, as he sent another horizontal swing at her, she dove between his legs, keeping her sword held securely to her side, using the slickness of the snow to slide easily under him before turning onto her back and kicking the underside of both his knees, sending the giant man buckling to the ground. Anna rose from the snow quickly bringing her sword to his neck as she stood over him with a triumphant and bright smile.

"Looks like you got me your highness, I yield"

"Good" Anna agreed as she panted heavily and tried futilely to help her defeated opponent up.

They strolled back slowly to the group, Anna sighing as she took the fresh air into her deprived lungs and Marshall smiling slightly next to her.

"Excellent job everyone, take a quick break before we start up again on the endurance test."

The group scattered as they went to grab their canteens or rest. Anna hummed to herself as she tried to think of the tests she wanted to put her group through. 'Guards need to be obedient, logical and calm, fit, fair, and be able to work in a team, I believe that's everything.'

She sat by herself observing the group as they took her break. Her brows kneaded as the possibilities for the endurance test came to her.

"Okay time for the next test," the princess bellowed at the group, "come here and line up."

The group did as told and waited for her orders standing rigidly and at attention.

"Okay boys, next up is the endurance test, we're going to make this plain and simple. You have to run 5 laps around the clearing without stopping," she gestured to the expansive wide open area around them, "you have to keep towards the edges, have fun!"

She shooed them off and watched them start their run, 'This should take an hour in itself at least maybe two, and I'll use the time to think up a plan for tonight' she went over to one of the giant snow piles and constructed a sitting area at the top of it so she could have a good spot to watch her men from.

"So this ice palace is at the peak of the mountain and her snow can sense when people are on it and will attack them, this almost seems like a riddle" Anna chuckled hollowly to herself. She pondered different scenarios for a long time, none seeming very useful or safe until she heard someone clearing their voice behind her.

"Yes what is it?" she asked as she turned around to see Alexander looking up at her.

"I have finished my five laps and wanted to ask if I should go pick up Olaf, who seems to have passed out from exhaustion."

Anna peered around the clearing spotting Hans and the twins jogging in a group as they conversed and Marshall on the other side of the clearing from them jogging absentmindedly. She figured he hadn't noticed just yet that Olaf wasn't running anymore.

"Yes please do, and try and do it discreetly so Marshall doesn't notice."

Alexander nodded before jogging off to the area a few paces behind where Marshall had been at a few minutes ago. She looked up at the sun's position in the sky, Anna figured the rest of the men would be finishing up soon, it'd almost been an hour and a half since they started their run. When Anna got down from her pile she noticed Alexander carrying Olaf on his back walking up to her, and she also caught a glimpse of Marshall looking curiously in their direction before speeding up to finish his last lap.

Anna took Olaf from Alexander when they met and looked over the small man. His skin was a dark pink and his face was red from his body's exertion from running. She carefully put him in the tent so his body could cool down out of the sunlight and he'd have protection from the slight wind that had started blowing through the clearing. When she exited the tent Marshall was standing at the doorway, his face pink as well from the cold and running and his breathing ragged.

"Don't worry Marshall he'll be up in a little bit he's just a bit tired," Anna reassured, "though I will have to take a point away from him for not completing the endurance test."

Marshall nodded in understanding, and Anna watched the rest of the group jogging back to the camp still chatting. They stopped when they got to the tent that everyone was now surrounding.

"Olaf will be taking a rest and I'll be doing the rest of the tests for you, and I'll give him the tests once he awakens, the rest of these tests will be questions about scenarios that you may face as a guard, each correct answer to a question will earn you a point and any incorrect answer will lose you a point. Go grab a quill, ink well, and paper from your saddle so we can begin."

The men went to their huddle of saddles that were by the horses and grabbed their supplies before walking back to Anna and sitting down in the area around her waiting for her questions.

"First question: You are on guard duty and are walking down an alley and you see a group of fellow guards yelling at a child who appears to have stolen something from a nearby market cart, what would you do?"

"Your highness?" Marshall questioned Anna as she finished her sentence.

"Yes?"

"I can't write, your highness" he answered eyes downcast as he moved the snow around under his hands.

"Not a problem," Anna smiled at him, "come sit with me, Marshall, I will tell the scenario to everyone, they will write it down and you can tell me your answer."

Once they walked away from the group Anna repeated the scenario and awaited Marshall's answer.

"I would question both parties, the theft could have easily been a mistake or misunderstanding and I'd want to know what actually happened. And even if the child did steal from the market cart I'm sure there would be a good justification for it that I'd want to question them about too."

Anna nodded at his answer and went back and forth with her questions and answers to the group until the sun began making it's trajectory down past the horizon and the first glimpse of the moon could be seen.

"That will be the end of the questions hand me your papers and start packing up to head out, we leave at dusk."

The men got up and handed their papers to Anna before packing up their ink and quills before heading to their tents to begin packing. Anna stopped Marshall on his way over to his and Olaf's tent.

"I do not have the time to give Olaf the questions I asked you, so I want to know if you think Olaf would answer the questions the way you did or if he'd answer them differently than you." Marshall stood and pondered what he wanted to say for a moment before answering Anna.

"I think he'd answer similarly to how I did or would be more inclined to sympathize with the people living on the streets, since he knows what that was like. But I know he'd make the right decision for everyone's benefit if given the chance."

The large man walked to his tent to wake Olaf and pack up leaving Anna to anticipate how Olaf would answer her questions as she too went to pack up her tent and get her horse ready.

She sighed as she finished packing Lianna's saddle and placing it on her, Anna still hadn't come up with a plan to take on the Ice Witch, and she had yet to get around the problem of a consciousness in the snow that could attack without the Ice Witch having to actually be there.

"What're you thinking about?" Olaf questioned as he walked up to her lifting his arms up in a way to tell her that he wanted to get up on the horse. She smiled at him as she lifted him onto the saddle, he acted like such a child at times, but it was endearing and cute in a way.

"I just don't know how we can attack the witch when we can't even get near her, her snow on the ground will attack us if we get too close."

"Why don't we use the trees to climb over it then, I'm sure if it's a giant ice palace it'll have a window we can get into from the trees." Olaf answered her like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

The princess stood there dumbfounded, mouth agape as she gazed at Olaf. Using the trees would solve all of their problems and possibly even put the group at an advantage.

"Close your mouth before a bird tries to make a nest out of it." Alexander joked as he mounted his horse.

Anna scowled at him as she mounted behind Olaf and saw the rest of the group mounting their horses as well. Anna turned her horse so that she could speak to them face to face.

"The travelers we met last night informed me of two vital things of information; one, the witch's ice palace is at the top of North Mountain, we shouldn't be able to miss it, and two, her snow can sense and attack people so we will be leaving the horses a well enough distance away from her fortress and taking to the trees after that."

Anna snapped her reins quickly and sped off into the forest with her men following behind her.

"You definitely get a point for this strategy Olaf, what made you think of climbing trees?" Anna asked lowering her voice so only Olaf could hear.

"Hmmm, well Marshall and I did a lot of tree climbing when we were younger. It's a lot warmer in trees to sleep in during winter than on the ground where you could possibly freeze to death under a pile of snow."

Anna contemplated the information silently. She hoped she didn't make any harsh memories come back to Olaf by asking the question, but as she looked down at him, he seemed to look fine.

The trip up the rest of the mountain was fairly quick, there was no wind or snow and the forest was silent around the group. Everyone within the group remained silent as well as they internally prepared for what was to come. No one had ever faced a witch before, no one knew what to expect. Anna thought of all the stories she'd heard as a child growing up of Gerda telling her how witch's ate children who stole sweets from the kitchen after their bedtime. Or the legends she'd read about in the castle library describing how grotesque and wicked they were, women who sold their souls to the devil for power.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the group came upon a frozen lake just below the top peak of the mountain. It was one of the most beautiful things the princess had ever seen, the area looked like she had just walked into one of her childhood story books. The trees were white and sagging from the weights of tear drop shaped ice that hung heavily from the edge of each branch, the waterfall that supplied the water to the lake was frozen solid as well. Mesmerized by the beauty of it Anna decided to dismount and leave the horses here, there were close enough to the peak as it was.

"Woooow," Olaf breathed as Anna helped him dismount, "this is so beautiful all it needs some extra colors, like reds or maybe yellow…nope not yellow, yellow and snow." He shivered in distaste to his own comment.

He giggled as he joined Marshall and the rest of the group exploring the beauty of the area.

"Just don't touch anything okay, we don't know what has been influenced here by her sorcery." Anna cautioned as she looked around the area.

They looked around for a while, frozen in the pure wonderment of the area, it was like nothing they had ever seen before, the snow was a perfect white powder, deep and pliable. Thomas chuckled as he bent down and scraped some of the snow from the ground to mold a snowball to throw at Gregory.

He screeched at the top of his lungs and fell backwards into the snow, everyone turned to him to see what the problem was. Their eyes come to focus on the open frozen over eyes of a man's head, his face frozen into an expression of utter fear that he had in his last moments of life. Frantically Anna went to one of the thicker patches of snow and started dusting off the top layers of snow with her gloved hand only to find more dead bodies below them. She turned to see most of her men doing the same, all finding the same thing. The wonderment of a mesmerizing spell shattered in a moment.

"We need to get out of here." Anna breathed out, her heart rate quickening as she realized they were standing atop a mass grave of frozen bodies.

As she turned to get the horses she saw Olaf absentmindedly grabbing at one the tear drop shaped icicles until he pulled one off, the sound of it breaking off from its branch echoing through the area like a bell chime.

'What have you done Olaf?' the question rung through her mind as the snow started to take on a life of its own around them.

Anna heard a deafening scream from behind her and when she turned around she saw red, blood dying the white snow crimson where two ice spikes had erupted from the ground and pierced both twins through their heart, both losing consciousness slowly as they coughed up blood. She turned when she heard a scream that was distinctly Olaf, only to see him covered in blood, 'dear gods, this has to be a nightmare, everyone dying before my eyes' her thought was broken when she heard weeping coming from the small man. His eyes wide open as he stared blankly into his younger brother's face, a small smile gracing the younger brother's blood covered features, three long icicles penetrated Marshall's body as he towered protectively over Olaf shielding him from their blows. Alexander was unconscious a few meters away from the brothers, but he was still breathing, Anna could tell by the shallow rise and fall of his chest. And as she looked to see what was going on around her she caught the last signs of Hans as he rode his horse away from the carnage, the rest of the horses following behind him scattering into the wild.

Anna's mind went blank as she got up and drew her sword, she needed to get Olaf and Alexander out of there, and as long as they were under her charge, she would do everything in her power to keep them alive. She charged towards Olaf first, trying to dodge the spikes that burst from the ground at her to the best of her ability, a few got through to her side, grazing the skin and burning the area with how cold the ice was. But she hardly noticed, the adrenaline pumping through her, keeping her warm as she kept going forward. The spikes were beginning to rip her clothes ruining the white royal military uniform she gained so much pride from wearing.

"Come on Olaf, we have to go" she pleaded with him panting heavily as she finally made it to his weeping form and began dragging him out of the lake area. He didn't respond to her, and Anna could see that he'd gone into complete shock. His body was dead weight as she dragged him through the snow, his eyes wide and vacant.

"This i-is my f-fault" he repeated it like a mantra as Anna dragged him away. When they were a safe distance away from the area she let Olaf go and kneeled in front of him.

"Olaf, you need to snap out of this. I need you to focus so we can get out of here safely, I need to go get Alexander but until I come back you need to get a hold of yourself." Tears were streaming down Anna's cheeks as she cupped Olaf's face trying to get him to focus on her. She couldn't find any recognition of what was going on around them from Olaf, he was trapped in the moment of Marshall's death repeating the scene in his mind over and over again.

"I'm lost without him, Anna, what's point in living with all this pain without." He deadpanned to her, as he started to cradle himself shutting his eyes tightly trying to shut out the world.

Anna rubbed his back gently and lifted his chin so that he would look at her.

"We have to keep living Olaf because if we don't live and survive we'll never see the happier days that will come in the future, so don't give up just yet, if we survive today I'll give you a life worth living, the life the you and Marshall deserved, I promise."

She tousled his hair lovingly before running back into the lake area getting ready to retrieve Alexander who was on the far side of the area. As she made her way to the edge of the area the snow seemed to ripple ahead of her, waiting for what she might do and as she looked up to see where Alexander was laying she caught sight of what she assumed was the Ice Witch. Her skin glowed from the last rays of sunshine being reflected off the snow, porcelain white and flawless. Her hair hung loosely around in wild white strands that blended in with her ice gown flowing around her, seemingly made of the sheets of snow that she stood upon. And the gaze in her eyes sent a bolt of electricity down the princess' spine, her ice blue eyes narrowed slightly as she seemed to freeze Anna's heart with his predatory glare. Anna dropped to her knees clutching roughly at her chest as she struggled to breathe. 'How can one look bring me to this state? Am I really so useless?' She'd never felt such crippling fear in her life before, her body surrendering to the situation before her mind could catch up. She looked up when she saw the witch's feet in front of her, the woman was peering down at her with a hint of what Anna thought was curiosity.

"You're quite scrawny for a human male, are you not?" The Ice Witch questioned, drawing her pink lower lip into her mouth as she bit it lightly.

"I am no man." Anna answered defiantly forcing her gaze away from the woman's eyes.

"Good, you might get to live for a little longer then" She smiled as she swirled her wrist in the air creating three giant ice golems behind her.

"What are you going to do to us?" Anna questioned trying to force herself up from the ground, surprised that she couldn't get up until she saw the snow below her had hardened into thick ice and was holding her wrists to the ground.

"All in good time," the witch smiled seductively as she firmly grabbed Anna's chin, her ice cold fingertips burning Anna's skin, "All. In. Good. Time." She pressed her lips firmly against Anna's as she forcibly kissed her, before blowing a bit of her magic into Anna's mouth.

The princess blacked out before the witch could even withdraw her lips from Anna's.


	4. Desperate Deal

The only sensation Anna could feel was cold, a cold that she had never encountered before, it was what she imagined being buried under a few feet of packed snow would feel like. A dull thrumming pain reverberated through her bones, her skin numb to the outside world as she gasped for air that only seemed to freeze in her throat. Anna moved her eyes frantically behind closed eyelids as she struggled to comprehend what was going on around her.

A sharp shooting pain, like liquid fire, ran through her body when she tried to open her eyes, a bright white light flashing behind her eyes. Her body recoiled from the sudden pain before quickly returning to the slowly lessening pain that flowed through her body. Something in Anna's mind told her that everything was going to be okay, that the emptiness of what felt like oblivion wouldn't be the end for her, she'd see the light again once everything was over. She calmed slightly at the given knowledge though it didn't help her feel any less vulnerable as she tried to mentally grasp for any sort of plausible answer as to what was going on, her senses had abandoned her. Nothing could be felt around her, she heard no one, nothing to assuage her fears that her nonexistent surroundings were safe, and she couldn't recall any thought or sense that she had ever been anything before this, leaving her confused and lost.

The only memory she could recall was the feeling of freezing cold lips on hers and a sensation of a pleasant coolness that tickled down her throat.

But soon the pain was lifting, the cold absorbing into her bones until it felt like it had become one with her. And she felt her senses slowly return as she began to awaken and rise from the nothingness that had been previously holding onto her.

Anna opened her eyes slowly letting the soft blue light around her filter through her pupils, her blurry vision beginning to focus on the details of her surroundings. The first thing she saw in detail was the high looming ceiling above her that was a deep blue that refracted the outside light. The princess groaned aloud bringing her arms to shield her eyes from the offending light, only to have them stopped in their trajectory by shackles made of ice. Eyes bursting open in alarm she forced her body up from where she lay to assess her situation. She hissed in a breath as her wounded body opposed her movement, and clutched at her side that had begun bleeding through the bandages that wrapped around her torso.

"Awww, come on, I just finished bandaging you up" a low voice next to her sighed in exasperation.

Anna's body shot away from the voice as far as her constraints would allow, intense fear etched into her features as she cowered away like a wounded animal.

"Hey it's alright," the man soothed holding his arms up to show that he wasn't going to harm her, "you're safe now, well not exactly safe, but alive at least." He muttered the last parts under his breath and Anna barely caught the man's words.

Anna eyed the man with deep suspicion, he looked at her with soft brown eyes and a small smile, his blonde locks falling messily from his head, and his large chest heaving as he breathed steadily. His smile broadened when he saw Anna relax her tensed muscles.

"Where am I?" the princess asked eyes scanning the room around her. Its architecture was similar to that of Arendelle Castle but it was missing the variety in color that the halls of Arendelle had. Everything in this room was a deep blue, the color of the ice that the room was made of.

"You are in Elsa's ice palace, one of her more beautiful pieces of work if I do say so myself."

The man ran a covered hand absentmindedly over the wall as he appreciated the room around them. Staring wearily at the man in front of her she began to question his sanity, he was in the Ice Witch's palace, the place where no one ever left from alive, and he was admiring the walls.

"Who are you?" Anna found herself asking. Tucking away the knowledge of now having her captor's name for later.

"Hmmm?" the man hummed turning back to Anna, "Oh, the name's Kristoff."

"Okay Kristopher, why are you here, wait scratch that, why am I here?"

"It's Kris-toff, no –er at the end," he corrected, clearly irritated, "as for why you are here I'm sure Elsa will tell you herself…oh and I'm happy to say the white hair streak looks really good on you."

"Whi-ite. Hair."

Anna stared at the burly man in utter astonishment as she maneuvered her shackled hands until they undid her messy bun. As the hair fell around her shoulders she grabbed a handful and lifted it to her face to inspect. Sure enough a thick bundle of her once coppery locks was now devoid of its previous color. Her mouth gaped open as she became at a loss for words, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she studied her hair further.

"It's a mark," Kristoff answered before she could ask, "proof that Elsa's magic has successfully fused with you, you should be quite proud that you survived the process, most die."

"Well that's reassuring." Anna rolled her eyes at him, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"It truly is" a sickeningly sweet voice said from the doorway.

Anna's eyes narrowed as she turned to the Ice Witch, or rather Elsa, but either way her blood boiled at the sight of the woman. She lunged at the witch not caring whether she opened her wounds, the only thing on the princess' mind was the need to make the woman pay for what she'd done, but the shackles around Anna's wrists stopped her from her advance. A guttural growl erupted from her throat at the frustration she felt for the situation and the seething hatred she felt for the woman who had taken the lives of her men.

The Ice Witch stood in the doorway unfettered by Anna's violent outburst and the princess grew angrier seeing that the woman seemed to be amused with how she reacted to her presence.

"I suspect you're not happy to see me."

"Why would I be?" Anna snarled.

"Hmmm, I at least assumed a royal such as yourself had been raised to thank the people who save their lives," Elsa replied, "guess I was wrong."

"Saved my life," Anna scoffed bewildered at the witch's words, "how exactly did you do that, I only recall your ice trying to slice me to bits?"

"You trespassed into my territory, my ice was only doing what it was created to do, if I had not been there to stop it you wouldn't be here right now."

"Rather be dead along with my men than in your poisonous presence," Anna seethed, "speaking of which, why did you let me live?"

Anna wearily eyed the witch and Kristoff as they shared a suspicious look before Kristoff rose from his seat next to Anna's bed and headed for the exit.

"It was nice meeting you," Kristoff said over his shoulder as he reached the door, "I hope everything goes smoothly for you two, and I'll see you in a few days if you're still here when I get back." He finished with a small sad smile, then exited the room, his large boots echoing off the ice floors as he left Anna alone with the Ice Witch.

The princess stared through the doorway in shock and shook to the core as the meaning within his words replayed in her mind. 'I might die before he gets back'.

She quickly turned back to the other woman in the room as she began frantically pulling at her chained hands in hope of breaking the ice shackles.

"They won't break, my ice is as strong as iron."

Anna leered at her for a few seconds, then resumed her attempts to break her shackles. After a few fruitless attempts a sigh escaped Anna when she gave up trying to break her confines and she visibly deflated.

"If you are done with that I can tell you why I've brought you here." Elsa stated coolly as she stared unamused at the princess.

The princess nodded curtly before sitting back on the bed with as much dignity as she could muster, her facial features contorting slightly at the jolts of pain that sprang up during some of her movements. Once Anna was situated the witch began slowly making her way to the princess as she talked.

"Do you know anything about elemental?"

"Only the general things from folklore, about them being creatures who can wield nature's power and protect the lands they reside in. And steal children who disobey their parents."

"That's a well enough basis of knowledge to start on, minus stealing children" Anna could hear some indignation in her tone, just barely, "but do your books and stories tell you how elementals come into being?"

Anna shook her head quickly as she eyed the witch's movements that were coming closer to her, her hips swaying smoothly like a metronome putting Anna into a trance.

"Elementals are born from mortals, they mature as humans until their powers awaken, then they become full elemental beings and stop aging and they progress on their life cycle, I'm going to assume you don't know the life cycle of an elemental?" she questioned, quirking an eyebrow at her captive.

"You have assumed correctly" Anna replied putting on her royal mask to hide the growing fear of where she assumed the conversation was going.

"The elemental life cycle consists of birth, aging to maturity, settling into a territory once you've found it and protecting it, reproducing, and finally living out the rest of your days until another elemental comes along to take over your territory."

"Can you guess which stage of the elemental cycle I happen to be on?" Anna hissed when she felt the witch's cold fingers on her skin. The witch held her gaze as she trailed a finger slowly down Anna's open shirt, leaving a thin line a frost in its wake.

She grazed the skin gently in fascination feeling the contours of the princess' trained body until her hand stopped over her captive's wounded side. Anna gasped and sucked in cold air, hissing profanities when she felt the witch playfully poke at her open wound.

"Fuck!" Anna growled as she tried to swat the witch's hand away from her side only to miss as the elemental backed away a small smile gracing her features.

"I am on the reproduction stage of my life, having protected this territory for the last 300 years, I'm ready to have a child and pass the role onto them. _That_ is why you are here now."

"What makes you think…I'll let you do that to me," the princess panted struggling with the new pain radiating in her side, "you have another thing coming if you think I'll just let you use my body to bring more monsters like you into the world." She ended with a defiant smirk trying to look as tough and strong as possible in front of her captor even though she was using every last ounce of her energy to stay conscious.

"I figured you'd have some resistance, though I could just force you if I wanted…but I have something to bargain with," the woman twirled her wrist in the air causing a small burst of light blue magic to come from her palms before she turned her attention back to Anna, "if you allow me to see if you are physically compatible with me and can help me produce an heir, then I will let these two live and they can return to Arendelle. Sounds fair enough doesn't it."

As she finished two large ice golems pushed a shackled Olaf and Alexander through the door of the room, the ice doorway expanding greatly to allow their massive bodies to enter.

Alexander swung his shackled fists defiantly at the golem knocking some snow from his stomach, coating half of Olaf's face with white powder, but the golem was unfazed and grunted before shoving Alexander hard to the ground.

"You're lucky my hands are bound, you overgrown snow pile." Alexander spat up at the golem towering over him.

A small smile tugged at Anna's mouth as she watched Alexander acting defiantly towards his captors, glad that he still had his fighting spirit.

Her smile was quickly wiped away as she turned to see Olaf, 'He's given up' Anna sighed internally as she looked into the small man's dull, lifeless eyes. His features were sunken as he stared blankly at the ground in front of him. Anna returned her attention back to the icy woman beside her as she signaled for her golems to hold the two men in place.

"Make your choice," Elsa demanded, "refuse me and I kill your men here and now, accept my offer and they can make their way safely back to Arendelle."

Anna took a long look at her comrades mulling over her decision, she knew there was only one choice that she'd ever willingly make, and she wouldn't be the death of her men for any reason. Steeling herself, she faced her captor, fists clenched in her lap.

"Don't do it," Alexander screamed, alarming Anna, "I don't know what this deal it, but if it helps this monster, don't do it." He thrashed violently against the ice golem trying to break free of his hold.

"Calm down Alexander," Anna commanded sternly, "it's not your choice, you're still under my command."

Alexander tensed clenching his shaking fists at his sides, anger burning in his features. He sneered when he saw the Ice Witch's small smile out of the corner of his eye.

"I will accept your proposal on one condition, witch" the witch narrowed her eyes as she looked expectantly at the princess, her eyebrows quirked with curiosity, "you must stop attacking traders that go through the North Mountain pass."

"You are not in the position to be making demands"

"True, but you have more to lose than I do from this, Kristoff told me how difficult it is to find women who can survive your magic, is this false information?" Anna quipped a triumphant smirk on her face as she gauged the icy woman's reaction.

"Impressive," she replied tapping her finger to her chin as she mulled over Anna's words in her mind, "I'll accept your terms with a condition of my own."

"And what would that be?"

"You have to refer to me as 'your majesty' and treat me as such. I am no witch and I do not enjoy being addressed as such. And you might as well learn some humility while you are here" a sly smile spread on her lips as she watched Anna glare daggers at her.

"As you wish, your majesty" Anna sneered bowing her head slightly from where she sat on the bed.

"Are you kidding me, don't let her win so easily Anna, you can't trust anything she says, she'll kill you just like Marshall, Thomas, and Gregory" Alexander pleaded angrily trying desperately to break the shackles. Olaf flinched at the mention of his brother's name shrinking in on himself as he glanced over to see Alexander's struggling.

"Enough!" Anna exclaimed silencing Alexander's shouting instantly, "you will leave this castle, head down the mountain back to Arendelle, making sure Olaf stays safe, and you will train to be excellent guards, do I make myself clear? Today won't be the last time you see me, I won't be away for too long, and when I get back, I expect you to be the finest guards I've ever laid eyes on…after all you're both my men, make me proud." She finished with a small bright smile. Both men nodded an affirmative at her words, though their eyes were glossing over with forced back tears.

"Take them away," the elemental ordered to her golems, "give them some supplies from the stash of trading caravan supplies for their journey, and make sure they don't come back."

The golems grunted an affirmative as they led Olaf and Alexander from the room, the door expanding once again to accommodate for the ice golem's size before shrinking back to its original size once they had left.

"So does this place have a loo?" the princess deadpanned.

"I'll make one if you so require it," Elsa answered, "until then I will take you to where you'll be staying while you're here. Follow me."

The shackles melted away from the princess' wrists as her captor exited the room. Anna looked up bewildered from her spot on the bed before scrambling to her feet as fast as she could without causing more pain for herself.

Fatigue weighed heavily on the princess as she huffed along behind Elsa through the ice palace, each set of stairs the two climbed only worsened Anna's state. Once they reached what Anna assumed was the third floor, considering they walked up two flights of stairs, Elsa guided Anna down the long hallway towards the princess' room. As Anna trailed weakly behind Elsa she glanced around taking in her surroundings.

This floor was nothing like the others they had passed and Anna internally marveled at it. The walls were a pure white coated in white sheets of snow to give it a solid look, ice weaved in on itself to make a grand fabric carpet that was sprawled down the entirety of the hallway, and the walls were lined with a few paintings giving color to the area. Anna squeezed one of the tapestries hanging from the wall trying to test the fabric-like-ice only to have the fabric melt in the spot she touched. In an instant the material weaved out to repair itself and Anna backed away from her marveling only to see Elsa giving her a dangerous and cold look from over her shoulder. Shaking herself back into a regal posture Anna continued following the icy woman in front of her through the hall.

"This will be your room," Elsa stated, "My room is back down the hall so if you have any ideas of escaping I suggest you cease that thinking now before acting on it."

"Also, the ice in this palace is what you'd call special, it will keep tabs on you, and so wherever you step, no matter where you are, I will know about it. The ice will also keep you inside the palace unless under supervision. Now that you know that I'll leave and start getting dinner prepared, which you will attend. Until then I suggest you find a way to fix up your wounds, it'd be terribly rude of you to pass out during tonight's activities." Elsa licked her lips teasingly before turning on her heel and heading back down the hall. A small chuckle escaped her lips when she saw the redhead visibly cringe from her action.

After Anna ceased to hear the icy heels of her captor clicking against the floor she turned her attention to the solid ice door in front of her. She eyed it wearily, the door dully glowing blue as she neared it. As she reached out towards the door handle her hand grabbed at air, she looked quickly down at the area to notice that the door had no handle. The redhead expelled a hot breath into her bangs in frustration, she reached a hand up to where the door handle would normally be and she eyed the area questioningly. Anna shot back in alarm when the door began to melt before her eyes after her hand had grazed over the cold icy surface.

Once she collected herself, looking down the hall making sure 'her majesty' didn't come storming down the hallway due to her breaking the elemental's door she cautiously stepped through the threshold to her room.

The room was heavily colored in blue, the ice that made up the space the only palette of color used in the design. There was a grand bed on the far wall, the canopy and headboard made of thick blue ice, but the blankets consisted of heavy furs from the various animals in the region along with a few exotic furs she'd only seen a few times in her life. Anna dredged slowly over to the bed before gently feeling at the furs, a content sigh escaped her lips at their warmth. Feeling the last of her strength leave her, Anna fell gracelessly onto the bed and closed her eyes, a few tears prickling her trying to break free.

"This ended horrendously," The princess let out a hollow laugh as she draped her uninjured arm over her eyes, "and it'll only get worse tonight"

"At least my men got out safely…some of them anyway."

Her throat closed as the memory of the previous day caught up with her, she rolled onto her side shrinking in on herself, ignoring the pain that craved for her attention. Tears began to break through the barrier of her eyelids as she silently sobbed into the fur blankets until sleep overtook her.

Anna startled awake when she felt a freezing cold touch graze over her bare skin. With her eyes wide she looked frantically around the room working herself into a panic when her mind couldn't make out where she was in her sleep heavy state.

"Calm down." Elsa ordered in a soothing tone as she grasped hard at Anna's shoulders trying to get the younger woman to stop flailing.

"What are you doing in here?" Anna accused pulling the furs tightly to herself.

"You seemed…cold so I was putting this on you since you fell asleep on top of the covers" The reply was curt as she held up a familiar thick cloak.

"Where'd you get that?" Anna growled as she grabbed her mother's cloak from the elemental's hands.

"From the chair in the corner, your belongings were brought here when I had you sent to Kristoff's room to get your wounds treated, at least what's left of them; your clothes were shredded. So I sent Kristoff to town to get you warmer clothes for the upcoming winter."

"T-thank you" the princess stuttered out utterly surprised at her captor's initiative. She whisked the cloak around her shoulders and relaxed into it.

"Don't thank me, I just can't have you dying before I get what I need from you, that'd be a bad investment. Now let's go, dinner has been prepared and since you're up we might as well get this done with quickly, I'd like to retire early tonight."

The elemental left the room quickly, door dissolving to allow her to pass. Clutching the thick cloak tightly to herself Anna followed behind as they made their way to wherever the icy woman in front of her was taking them. They walked in complete silence, the only noises around them were the clicking of their shoes and Anna's slightly labored breathing as they descended to the second level.

"I don't remember this being here?" Anna asked raising an eyebrow as Elsa guided her through a set of ornate double doors.

"It was not here before."

Anna glanced around the newly constructed room, dumbstruck by the amount of detail that was able to be put into the room in such a short amount of time. The room looked like an ice replica of one of the dining halls back in Arendelle, large smooth pillars lined on the perimeter of the room, a long table being the room's central feature, and a large ice chandelier hovering over it. Though Anna supposed a lot of dining hall were also designed like this.

The princess licked her lips as her gaze dropped to the copious amounts of food filling up the half of the table that the two would be sitting at. She eyed the elemental curiously contemplating where it would be appropriate to sit, waiting for the white haired woman to sit before she decided.

The elemental took her seat at one of the middle chairs down the length of the table, close to where the majority of the food was and motioned for Anna to sit across from her. Anna complied quickly, flinching momentarily from the slight burning sensation of the ice chair that she had to pull out for herself. After settling into her seat Anna began grabbing for food, her stomach grumbling loudly in anticipation.

"What is this?" the redhead inquired her jaw clenching as she glared the other woman down.

"Its food of course."

"Its frozen solid, how am I supposed to eat this?"

The elemental sat back in her chair humming as she pondered her answer. Anna huffed at the sight, irritation showing clearly on her face as she waited expectantly for 'her majesty's' answer.

"I suppose you can't" Elsa replied after a few minutes.

"Of course I can't, how could that even come into question. Humans can't eat frozen solid food." Anna groaned rubbing her temples as she exhaled a heavy breath, 'This woman is infuriating.'

"Well I apologize for my lack of knowledge, the thought escaped my mind. I can accompany you tomorrow to go find wood so you can make a fire to cook your food."

"Can we not do that now?"

"Well, unless you want to get attacked by wolves, then no."

Anna nodded in acceptance to the proposal before she pushed her plate away from her, still slightly angry for being denied food when she was becoming increasingly hungry.

"Shouldn't you know this anyway? Everyone has to eat no matter who or what you are…and even you said elementals were humans once."

"I was human well over three hundred years ago, you forget a lot of things in that amount of time. I don't need as much food now, the area that I protect sustains me, but I still eat some of the berries that grow around here for the taste."

"So I assume dinner is over then?" Anna questioned nervously wringing her hands together under the table after a long drawn out silence between the two.

"It appears so, time for this little deal of ours to take place."

The princess choked on her saliva when Elsa sent a seductive smile her way. She tensed when they got up and started to leave the room. With each step they took towards their destination Anna began to dread what was about to happen more and more.

Thoughts plagued the redhead's mind as she focused on the clicking of her boots as the noise echoed through the halls. 'Dear gods I'm going to die tonight, possibly…maybe…this isn't fair…I'm losing my first time to a monster who took everything from me…if I make it back home I'll probably be thrown to the streets as a common harlot and be an outcast, I can't even imagine how father and the other officials will look at me…I shouldn't have agreed to this, I don't deserve this…I hope Olaf and Alexander are doing okay.' Anna visibly calmed when she thought of the two men, able to return to Arendelle and be safe, determination sinking into her features, 'I did this for them, they're safe and it was my duty to make it so.'

"I want you to know 'your majesty'," Anna started waiting for Elsa to turn around and give her full attention before she continued, "I don't plan on making this easy for you, the deal still stands of course, but I'm the one true heir of Arendelle so if you think I'm going to roll over and take it like a common whore you got another thing coming." A confident smirk crossed her face as she instilled some hope in herself eyeing the calm woman in front of her anticipating her reaction.

"I would hope so princess."

Anna's eyes widened in disbelief as her jaw slackened, that was definitely not the reaction she was anticipating. Her eyes widening even more when they stopped in front of the door to her room.

"Why are we at my quarters?"

"Well if we did this in my room you'd most likely die from the cold, your room has blankets and coverings and is a great deal warmer than mine."

The princess grimaced deeply at the thought, even after this was done she'd probably lay awake remembering it if she had to sleep in the same spot afterward, there was no running from this.

"So are you prepared for this?" Elsa asked as they entered the room the ice door sealing itself back up after they'd walked through it.

Anna sighed deflating slightly as she removed her mother's cloak from her shoulders, folding it as she walked towards the chair in the corner of the room and placed it there next to her sword. She shivered as the cold the room finally registered to her.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Anna deadpanned as she turned back to Elsa, quickly covering her eyes and squeaking when she saw that the woman had discarded her snow powdered robes.

"What the hell are you doing?" she yelled, though an obvious blush had begun taking residence on her cheeks. Her heart pounded in her chest as she tried to get rid of the image of her captor's pale flawless skin being invitingly right in front of her.

Elsa had by far the most gorgeous body she'd ever seen, possibly the only naked body she'd ever seen besides her own, but it was perfect by all possible standard; beautiful curves, smooth inviting skin, and succulent pale breasts topped by perfect pink nipples.

'Fuck,' she hissed at her own thoughts, 'she's making it really hard to hate her right now with that amazing body…wait, what…am I blushing…fuck I hate this.'

"I believe I'm initiating this physical encounter, am I doing it wrong?" Elsa asked confused biting her lower lip.

"Nope, nope, don't mind me" the redhead replied hand still covering her eyes, though she took a peek through her fingers every so often.

"Then come here."

Anna shuffled forward slowly hand still over her eyes as she closed the distance between them.

"You act like you've never seen a naked female body before. Is there something unpleasing to you about my appearance?"

"Just do whatever you are going to do to me," she huffed in reply a frown forming on her face, "I don't want to talk to you about my life." A slight bit of anger and embarrassment forming in her at the sly condescending smile the cold woman sent her way.

"As you wish princess."

Anna was pulled into a deep kiss, she winced slightly when the woman unknowingly squeezed a cut of her arm, but otherwise let her body react and move in time with the blonde's kisses.

When Anna pulled away for much needed air, biting aggressively on Elsa's lip as they parted, the taller woman maneuvered her onto the bed, the furs a warm welcome to the room's cool temperature.

Anna began to relax herself into the bed as Elsa crawled on top of her and began kissing the redhead's neck, softly nibbling and sucking on the sensitive skin licking her pulse point.

"Gods" Anna let out a breathless gasp when Elsa kissed the sensitive skin behind her ear and blew cold air onto the moist skin sending pleasure coursing through her veins.

Her thoughts and feelings were becoming muddled as a pleasant haze settled in clouding her reason. Sensation was taking over as Anna focused on the feeling of the elemental's kisses along her skin, the warmth in her body that was blocking out the cold, and the caress of Elsa's cold fingers as they trailed down her blood-covered white shirt towards her southern region, exploring her curves through the garment.

She startled back to reality when an extremely painful and freezing bite was placed on her collar bone and she realized her captor had begun undoing her pants.

"No!" she screamed pushing Elsa off of her with all the strength she could muster. Anna sat up and poked at the spot Elsa had bitten testing the amount of pain she felt there. She winced at the sharp pain, then turned to Elsa shrinking back in on the bed to create distance between them.

"Why'd you push me off, you seemed to be enjoying yourself?" Genuine curiosity evident in the elemental's tone.

Anna couldn't respond to her question, she had no idea why she reacted that way, she knew what sex consisted of and that that's what she was doing now, but her body reacted on its own to the sudden intrusion and pain. She tried to shake the nerves from herself as she visibly relaxed eyeing Elsa who hadn't moved an inch from where Anna had pushed her to.

Elsa's expression was blank which slightly unnerved her, but she made a deal and she didn't plan on breaking it.

"Uh…can you at least take it a bit slower…this is a first for me." she finished the last part under her breath hoping Elsa didn't hear it.

"I suppose so, if I must, but I'm not allowing you to pull away like that again."

The white haired woman twirled her wrists and commanded her magic, creating a pair of shackles that bound Anna's wrist to the headboard.

The princess paled when she felt the ice cold confinements around her wrists, instinctively struggling against them for a few moments before calming down. Her gaze hardened as she watched Elsa crawl back towards her, the older woman's hips swaying smoothly as she did.

The redhead swallowed, throat going dry as Elsa enveloped her in a bruising kiss, her mouth being forced open by Elsa's tongue. She let the older woman explore her mouth as much as she deigned appropriate and was pleasantly surprised when she felt Elsa suck on her tongue.

The princess gasped as they parted breathing heavily as her lungs forced air back into them, her breath becoming erratic when Elsa returned back to the sensitive skin behind her ear.

Elsa nibbled on her earlobe as she retracted herself to look at her captive in the eyes.

"Is this slow enough for you?" she coyly teased watching the redhead slightly flush at the question. A smirk appeared on her face when Anna tried to subtly sneak a peek at her naked body causing Anna to blush deeply at being caught. Elsa leaned back into Anna biting softly at her neck and sucking hard at the skin to mark her.

Seeing that Anna was slowly starting to relax once again soft gasps escaping her every so often Elsa set about removing the princess' clothes.

She manipulated her ice into a claw and cut Anna's shirt from her body slightly scratching the redhead's skin in the process.

The redhead sucked in air when she felt Elsa's ice claw slightly cut into her flesh and peered up at the woman who was quickly removing the abused garment from her.

A cool hand grazed Anna's warm flesh as Elsa went about feeling out the contours of the redhead's body. Elsa looked over the princess' exposed skin studying the small amount of freckles that dusted Anna's shoulders and collar bone, and the fine definition of the younger woman's toned abdominal muscles under soft skin. After raking over her captive's body with her eyes for a few moments, she began to explore the skin with her hands, feeling the muscle and bones that lay just beneath the surface of the redhead's skin. She gently rubbed her thumb over Anna's oblique and squeezed curiously at the underside of the bound breasts. A small gasp from the woman under Elsa betrayed how sensitive the soft mounds were.

Creating another ice claw Elsa cut through the binding material watching as the full size of Anna's breasts were released from the constrictive material. Elsa sucked lightly at the newly exposed breasts beneath her testing their sensitivity, her internal question answered when she heard a moan escape from Anna's lips.

A mischievous smile spread across Elsa's face at the reaction and she brought her full attention to the soft flesh below her, lightly biting the peak of the redhead's right breast while pinching the left between her fingers. Her actions were rewarded by Anna's squirms and hardened nipples at the princess' increasing arousal.

Elsa returned her mouth back to Anna's as she sent her free hand to begin unbuckling the redhead's pants, purposefully poking the woman's side wound on the trip down. She felt Anna tense, recoiling below her before the princess bit her lip hard in retaliation.

"Ow, what was that for?" Anna asked glaring daggers at the woman above her.

"No reason, I just enjoy the look you make when you're in pain." Elsa smiled, returning to kissing Anna's neck effectively silencing the younger woman as she removed the clothes covering her lower body.

"You better hurry this up so I can put my clothes back on, it's too cold for this." The redhead chattered beneath Elsa.

"You ruin the mood when you say things like that." Elsa growled lowly into Anna's ear as she bit at her jaw.

"G-good"

Elsa disregarded the comment as she curled her lithe fingers into the moist red curls of Anna's sex earning a gasp. She dipped a finger into the slick folds curious to how wet the reluctant redhead had become and pulled away with a well lubricated digit. Elsa smirked, feeling confident in her ability to bring her captive to such a state of arousal, as she rubbed her fingers together to lubricate them all.

"Almost done now," the white hair woman stated, "But you still have your hymen, so I'm going to have to break it so the magic can make its way in easier."

'I really hope she survives this, I don't want to have to keep searching for more women.' A grimace crossed Elsa's face as she returned her attention to the younger woman below her. The redhead's eyes were wide with fear as she peered into her captor's eyes pleadingly.

"I'll try to make it is as painless as possible." She cooed, placing soft kisses on Anna's freckled cheeks in reassurance before kissing her deeply in an attempt to distract her.

The elemental's lubricated fingers returned to Anna's entrance before she began to slowly ease a finger in. Anna's body slightly jerked at the pain caused by the foreign object's intrusion, a slight hiss sounding from her when the movement sent the pain in her side flaring.

A small whimper escaped from the princess as Elsa's finger eased into her, the pleasure taking over from the initial pain. Her breath caught when Elsa began to pump gently in and out of her with her finger, kissing her neck and fondling her all at the same time.

She bucked her hips instinctively, her body needing to feel more from the contact. Anna's mind blanked not able to focus on anything but the clenching feeling in her lower stomach. None of the books she'd ever read in the castle library came close to describing this feeling, most glazing over the feeling of it for the more medical and technical workings of what was happening. She might hate Elsa with all her heart for everything that had gone wrong the past few days but right now, with her own hands chained to the bed, the cold woman was the only one who could give her the release her body craved for.

"More…" she panted thickly, eyes shut tightly as she tried to clench her inner walls around Elsa's one finger in hopes of gaining more friction.

Elsa complied immediately sinking in another finger and pumping into the princess at a faster pace, in and out as deep as her fingers would allow.

Anna began rhythmically moving her hips in time to meet with Elsa's thrusts, mumbling incoherently as she tried to catch her breath and ignore the pain of her wounds.

Elsa moved methodically as she worked Anna towards her release, her mind running like clockwork as she smoothly and quickly pumped her fingers into Anna taking notice when her finger barely grazed the younger woman's hymen.

She retracted her fingers quickly, much the disappointment of the princess, and used her magic to give her fingers the extra length they required to break through the redhead's symbol of purity.

Anna shivered slightly as the cool ice entered, the opposing temperature not completely unwelcomed against the heat that seemed to be radiating through her body. She moaned loudly as Elsa began pumping her fingers into her at a steady pace, the ice filling her more completely, the feeling in her abdomen building up even more with each thrust.

Her body wouldn't last much longer, Elsa seemed to notice this too as she took an extra hard stroke to pierce the princess' last defense.

A shriek came from Anna's mouth as the pain shot through her like lightning, her body recoiling slightly from it. Her brows furrowed as she tried to brace herself against the unwelcome sensation.

"It'll feel good again in a moment."

Elsa began to move her fingers again, starting out slowly before working herself back into her faster pace when she felt Anna was ready for it.

The redhead responded with soft moans and mewls as the pleasure heightened again and her body was once again craving release. Her hips were beginning to move erratically against Elsa's ministrations.

"Dear Gods" Anna moaned breathily, a tint on irritation in her voice as she struggled for the need to grab onto something to brace herself, though her confinements kept her from doing so.

Anna felt like moldable dough in Elsa's hands, each thrust of her fingers driving her insane as she teetered close to the edge. As Elsa retracted her icy fingers she grazed on a sensitive spot inside her walls and Anna come undone at the pleasure that shook through her whole body.

Elsa watched as the princess below her experienced the ecstasy of physical sexual relations, a small content smile forming on her face as she relished in the knowledge of knowing she'd coaxed the younger woman there herself.

Anna panted trying to regain her breathing as her orgasm subsided, her heartbeat still hammering in her chest. Her curiosity and fear increasing when she realized she was still shackled to the bed post. 'Aren't we done?'

The elemental seemed to notice the questioning look and quickly dismissed the ice that covered her fingers.

"We're almost done, I just have to fill you with my magic now."

Anna nodded knowing this was the defining moment of the night, she'd either walk out of the ice palace with a baby in her arms somewhere down the road or die tonight, another dead woman to add to the missing posters floating around Arendelle. Her body slightly tensed and she fought to choke back the bile that tried to escape from her throat.

"Try to relax and do not move." Elsa instructed and gave the redhead a small encouraging smile. She manipulated her magic to construct shackles around the princess' ankles that anchored her to the bed.

The elemental locked eyes with the princess holding her gaze as she positioned herself in between Anna's legs using her hands to give her more room to work. She lowered her head to Anna's entrance not breaking eye contact and gave a quick lick to the princess' sensitive bundle of nerves analyzing the redhead's reaction.

Anna forced her body to not move in response to the stimulation sensing that Elsa was testing her before actually getting started. Gritting her teeth she nodded for the elemental to proceed hoping to communicate with her eyes that she was ready for whatever what about to happen.

She almost screamed and jerked when she felt freezing cold lips kiss her entrance blowing a tiny bit inward.

Anna could barely register anything that came after, the amount of pain she was experiencing cutting off all thought, her brain feeling like it was about to explode as she willed herself to not move. The princess felt what she assumed was ice creep up through her inner walls everything it touched leaving the feel of fire in its wake. She was burning and freezing from the inside all at the same time, and she had to lay through the searing unimaginable pain without moving a muscle.

Elsa remained calm in front of her sitting on the bed now watching her magic do its work. Her face devoid of emotion as she held her gaze on Anna commanding with her eyes to not move, challenging the girl in front of her to rebel against her wish.

Power swirled in her glare as she stared down the princess. And to Anna it seemed to be the calm in the middle of the storm of pain she was in. Furrowing her eyebrows she kept Elsa's gaze, not moving a muscle, as she stepped up to the elemental's challenge.

'I'll show her, I won't die tonight, or tomorrow, or even the next day, she won't be rid of me so soon.' Her resolve becoming law in her mind as she let the pain course through her in all its fury.

And when the pain subsided and Elsa gave a relieved sigh, Anna smiled triumphantly before letting herself fall into the comfort of unconsciousness.


	5. Makings of a Devil's Den

**Author's Note:** Heyoooo, so I'm gonna actually post a new redone chapter once a week. This will give me time to work on the new chapter. And I have a crazy amount of work to do until the school year ends and I had absolutely no time to edit today. I have a ten page paper due tomorrow that i still haven't started cuz i was editing this starting right after class. So sorry for not giving you four chapters today, but it'll work out better this way in the long run I'm sure. And to the other people who are dealing with finals and know my pain right now because you too have procrastinated, good luck! Don't let yer ship sink before the battle is over.

Love, Capn' Cooks

* * *

Wind whipped angrily around Hans as he urged his horse to go faster, the other royal horses following close behind. He pulled up the hood on his cloak to shield himself from the violent flurries of snow that had picked up since he left the frozen carnage of the pond. Hans panted loudly as he tried to focus on getting back to Arendelle, weaving in and out of trees, his heart pounding heavily against his ribcage and his hands trembling slightly as he tightly gripped the reins. The scene of the pond and the following carnage flashed fresh behind his eyes, the memory burned into his mind, though he tried to shake the image.

Hans snapped the reins when he saw the edges of Arendelle come into view, the weather calm in the areas surrounding the town and castle, despite the storm raging on North Mountain. The lack of moonlight causing the torches lighting Arendelle Castle seem like a bright beacon of warmth and safety to the weary soldier.

Once on the streets of Arendelle the sound of horses' hooves against the cobblestone ground thundered throughout the town, the lone rider not caring if he awoke anyone. As he crossed the bridge he noticed the guards startle into action, the loud noise shocking them out of their leisurely night patrols. Pulling on the reins quickly, Hans halted in front of the gates showing his arms in surrender to let the guards know he meant no harm.

"Who goes there?" a guard bellowed from the top of the wall. The other guards had their weapons at the ready, bows and spears aimed at the intruder.

"Hans, son of Duke Bachuss, and guard trainee to the princess," the auburn haired man stated, working to steady his spooked mount, "I have urgent news for King Adgar. I must speak with him immediately."

The guards nodded and retracted their weapons slowly before they went to open the gates. The gears clacked together loudly as the large gates opened before Hans. He didn't wait for them to fully open before he led the horses inside the castle walls, dismounting gracefully and handing the reins over to a guard who came to approach him.

"Have these horses put back in the stables, and give them a treat," he instructed to one of the guards. The guard replied an affirmative and began his task. Herding all the other royal horses that came back with Hans to the stables.

"Is there anything I can get you, sir, you look weary from your travels?"

"Something warm, please," He sighed, making his way to the entrance, "oh and can someone wake the king, I must speak with him, and probably the other council members too."

"Someone awaken Kai he'll take care of the rest," the head guard commanded before turning back to Hans, "you can wait in the meeting hall until then and we'll have your drink sent there for you."

Hans smiled his appreciation before heading inside to wait.

The walk to the meeting room was soothing, the dark halls were quiet due to the early hour, and Hans began to visibly relax, strolling through the halls as if it were any other day.

Once at the room he gently opened the door before heading in and inhaling the stuffy air of the area. He exhaled dreamily before he took long strides to the king's royal chair, combing over the red velvet material with precise strokes. He inspected the seat thoroughly, admiring the intricate design of the wood, the coloring and the visible indent of all the monarchs who had sat upon the chair over the years of Arendelle's short history. The auburn sighed tiredly as he headed over to one of the other chairs dropping into his seat and rubbing his temples.

"Poor dear," a voice called from the entrance drawing Hans' attention, "I brought you some hot chocolate to warm you up from your journey back."

"Hot Chocolate?"

"Do you not want it," the elderly woman questioned looking slightly guilty, "I'm so used to Princess Anna asking for it at this late hour I forgot most people have more mature tastes. I can get you something else if you like."

The woman chuckled to herself at the memory as she offered up the sugary drink.

"No that will be quite fine…—"

"Gerda." She answered his unspoken question.

"Thank you Gerda, you've done my weary bones a great service." He sent her one of his most heart melting smiles as he took the drink from the tray.

The head housekeeper smiled back in turn before giving him a quick bow and leaving the room.

Within the next few minutes the council members began slinking tiredly into the meeting room. Most were stifling yawns or rubbing the sleep from their eyes, while others pointed Hans with an annoyed scowl as they entered. Each took their seat trying desperately not to fall back asleep as they waited for the king.

"So what's this about Hans?" one of the officials across from him inquired.

"I rather speak once the king and everyone else arrives if that's fine."

The man nodded in understanding, realizing better than to press the issue and leaned back in his chair.

"It better be good, I have to be up at dawn to start training the new runts." Sir Ivan grumbled aloud making sure Hans could hear him.

Before Hans could reply the king entered the room and everyone rose from their chairs to greet him before taking their seats after the king sat down.

"So what's with all this ruckus going around? And so early, I was just about to retire for the night." King Adgar stated off handedly adjusting his crown.

Hans stood and faced the king, everyone at the table bringing their attention to him to hear why they had been summoned to a meeting so early.

"I have urgent news regarding the party sent up to North Mountain."

"Well spit it out." One of the council members spoke after a long pause.

"The mission failed." Hans spoke softly as he directed his words to the king.

The king's face paled greatly at the information, his body in shock as he looked in disbelief at the young man. He had let his daughter go because he was sure that there wouldn't be anything out there she couldn't handle. If he'd have thought otherwise he'd never had let her go.

"Tell me exactly what happened." He ordered, his voice stern and expression stoic.

Hans described the trip in great detail to the council, not leaving out any details, aside from his overly aggressive acts towards the "bandits". The group listened attentively to each word that came from his mouth, slight murmurs here and there about high points in the journey, though they waited eagerly for the climax of the journey that spurred on the need for the meeting. So far from what Hans described the mission seemed to be a success.

They all quieted when Hans paused, his expression grave as he cleared his throat.

"The Ice Witch butchered everyone your majesty," he stated gravely, "the snow we were standing on came to life and attacked us, I left before I was killed, I doubt anyone survived. I'm sorry."

Silence and dread hung over the room like a thick blanket. The council members looking to gauge the king's reaction to this news. Hans sat back in his seat head hung low as he waited for someone to talk.

"We must figure out what to do next, your highness," the general spoke up, "winter will be upon us soon, and without the trade route open we might not have enough supplies for the citizens of Arendelle."

"I understand, Sir Ivan," the king replied wearily eyes filled with sadness though he kept his regal poise, "we shall discuss this in the morning. You are all dismissed."

"Except for you, Hans."

The council members bowed quickly before shuffling out of the room as quickly as possible. As they filed out the auburn rose slowly from his chair before approaching the king as formally as possible.

"What can I do for you, your majesty?"

"I just want to thank you for bringing back the news, though it was bad news, I rather have knowledge of what happened than to never know at all…it must have been hard to leave your comrades, but you did the right thing. That is all, have a good evening I'll have Gerda or Kai show you to where you'll be staying. I'd like to hear more in the morning but I have to let this new information sink in."

"Of course, your majesty. Thank you very much."

The king rose from his chair and slowly made his way out of the room, mumbling to one of the servants outside the room to get Gerda or Kai.

Hans waited in the room alone for a few minutes before Gerda padded back into the room and motioned for him to follow her.

The walk was mostly quiet through the dark halls, Gerda making small talk and telling stories of her years working in the castle while Hans trailed behind acknowledging her without adding any input himself.

"This will be your room for however long you stay here," Gerda stated opening the door for the young man, "is there anything I can get you?"

He wearily shook his head telling her he had everything he needed and retired to the room. The interior was hard to make out in the darkness and he cautiously made his way to the bed, trying not to bump into anything. The auburn sighed as he removed his shoes and thick coat letting it drop to the ground.

"Tomorrow will be quite a long day, so much to do, but at least I have all the time in the world now." he mused aloud as he climbed beneath the covers, closing his eyes and quickly falling asleep.

A light rapping at the wooden door of the noble's chambers had Hans making his way back into consciousness. Rays of sunshine filtered through the curtains of his chambers causing him to groan slightly at the uncomfortable lighting.

"Are you alright in there?" a voice asked from the other side of the door.

"Yes, quite alright, is someone in need of me?" He yawned and stretched his back.

"I've been sent to collect you sir…for the meeting." The voice quivered slightly as if afraid of angry repercussion at the news.

"Ah, I see," Hans answered rubbing his eye tiredly, "I'll be ready in a few moments, have some coffee set at my seat in the meeting room."

The auburn heard the pattering of shoes against the cold floors and assumed the servant had left to go about their task. He sighed throwing the covers off of himself and going about the room getting ready as quickly as he could.

Upon completion of him donning his formal attire he set down the halls to the meeting room, taking a few wrong turns here and there, but making it to the hall in a decent amount of time.

Opening the door to the meeting room he became bombarded with loud chattering, mostly consisting of angry tones and exasperated sighs. None noticed the young noble walking in and taking a seat in his empty chair. A servant came up to him placing a steaming mug of coffee before him and he smiled his appreciation. Hans listened to the bickering surrounding him, the noise so loud he feared he might lose his hearing.

Sir Ivan was yelling at the top of his lungs about the immediate action needed to take down the Ice Witch, slamming his fist on the table trying to prove that this should be their first course of action. The treasurer and foreign dignitaries agreeing with him that opening the trade route, or finding a new trade route, needed to be done immediately. The older council members, mostly those in charge of internal affairs and the public urged that a new heir was of the utmost importance to acquire, without a sure line of succession, the throne would be put in danger. All the while the king sat in his chair rubbing at his temples and listening silently, a few tired sighs escaping his mouth every now and then.

Hans watched in pure fascination and amusement as the council room became a madhouse, men turning blue in the face from their constant bickering. He chuckled to himself as he imagined one of them fainting from lack of breath. The sound of his chuckles slowly started to register to the room, and the yelling died down as everyone looked at Hans with questioning looks on their faces.

"What's so funny about this, boy?" One of the heavier council members asked anger tittering on his tone.

"Nothing is funny I assure you sir, I suppose I just expected the noble gentry of Arendelle to have a little more control, than to start bickering like a hoard of children arguing over a toy." The auburn replied coolly, though his eyes were daring and aggressive.

"I'd watch my tongue if I were you," the man sneered back slowly rising from his chair, "just because you're the late Duke Bachuss' son doesn't give you any higher status here, learn your place whelp."

"Quiet down Baron, the boy at least silenced you all, so if anything he's accomplished more in this meeting than any of the rest of you," the king spoke and all the council members sat down in their chair, slight shame framing their features, "so Hans, what do you think would be the best course of action, surely you have an opinion on this."

Han's paused for a moment, thinking over the possibilities of what could be done in this situation. The facts were splayed out in front of him and he sifted through them in his mind to figure out the best one for himself.

"I…I agree with Lord Markus, an heir to the throne is—"

Yelling erupted again from a good portion of the council members, cutting off Hans, each trying to scream their way to proving their idea was right. But they were all effectively silenced when the king raised his hand and gave the members warning looks.

"Please continue Hans, what is your reasoning behind this?"

"Though attacking the Ice Palace seems like a good idea, from what I've witnessed we'd only be sending soldiers to their deaths." Hans began speaking powerfully to his audience, "Also another important point is that by now other kingdoms boarding our own will have noticed that our major terrestrial trade route is now compromised thus weakening the kingdom, making us a prime target for any of our neighboring kingdoms that may want to attack, and without a new heir we are at a very high disadvantage."

The council members nodded their heads in agreement with his words, though some huffed at clearly losing the argument. When Hans finished he trained his eyes on the king waiting for a response.

Silence filled the room as everyone waited for the king to speak, watching him as he stroked his beard in deep thought and fidgeted with one of his rings. His features seemed sullen and deflated the more he thought until he went to speak.

"All of this is true, but I wouldn't feel right if I abandoned my daughter so quickly, without any knowledge if she is alive or not."

"If I may speak freely your majesty," Sir Ivan started waiting on the king's approval to continue; the king nodded. "Princess Anna was never a perfect heir, being a woman for one, but she was not made for holding power, she's too gentle, though skilled with actual fighting; even if she did return I don't see her being a great successor to your legacy."

"Do all of you feel this way?"

A good number of the council hummed and nodded in agreement with the general.

"I see," the king replied, "what would you have me do then, I will not overrun this castle with suitors like in my younger years."

A thought clicked into Hans' brain as the king spoke. He cleared his throat after the king finished to get everyone's attention.

"Perhaps we can all agree on a suitable woman, one that your highness approves of as well who can provide an heir. Would that be doable?"

Once again the council members voiced their approval of the idea. The king nodding in acceptance of the proposal too and he relaxed in his chair.

"Does any of you have a suggestion for such a woman?"

"Well she'd need to be unwed," Hans thought aloud, making sure everyone could hear him, "probably not too young and be educated on current affair, so as to better complement his majesty, someone well respected in Arendelle to appease the public."

"What about Lady Julianna?" a council member piped in, "Daughter of the late Baron Rodney, she's very much liked throughout Arendelle, and has been widowed since the death of Duke Bachuss. Isn't that right Hans? Seeing as she is your mother, you should know more than I."

"Yes it is, she's also very well versed in the politics of Arendelle and can be a great asset to your highness."

"That and with thirteen children we at least know she isn't barren..." One of the officials jibbed under his breath but most it could still be heard fairly well around the room.

"I suppose that's reasonable," King Adgar hummed, "I will give her a chance, though I will not rush into this without more information on my daughter. Until she is proven dead I won't give up on her. You are all dismissed."

Everyone nodded at the king's words before rising from their chairs. They all shuffled out silently closing the door behind them.

"If it would please you, your majesty, I will go collect my mother from our estate and bring her here personally." Hans asked as he headed for the door.

"Yes of course, that is fine."

On his way out he saw a messenger running towards the meeting hall as fast as his legs could carry him. The young man running in a frantic manner as he burst through the doors of the hall. The auburn paused to the side of the door curious as to the message that the messenger was sent to deliver.

"Your majesty," the messenger huffed almost falling over as he quickly bowed, "we have two survivors from North Mountain at the gate…they wish to speak with you."

"So my daughter is not there I'm assuming?" The king asked sadly, already knowing the answer.

The messenger shook his head mirroring the king's expression. "Should I bring them in?" The king nodded once and the messenger bolted from the room again towards the gates.

A grimace formed on Hans' face as the messenger left. He had been quite sure he'd be the only survivor, but now there were two more survivors; he'd have to keep an eye on them, though he wasn't too worried. No one other than Anna had seen him run off and leave, and the princess wasn't here so she probably hadn't survived, nothing really hindering on his new plan to gain a better life for himself. This was turning out much better than he thought, why take the time working his way through the ranks of the guard to become a military official when he could just gain prominence through his mother's marriage to the king.

Hans righted himself from his position by the door and strolled down the halls heading to the stables to ask for a carriage to be prepared for his journey to get his mother. He smiled to himself the whole way looking forward to the end result of this impromptu plan; if all went well, soon he'd be a royal with a castle of his own to call home.

xXx

Olaf and Alexander were quickly led to the meeting hall, being herded to the king by the messenger. They walked as quickly as they could behind him while still letting the decorum and details of Arendelle Castle sink in. The extravagant moldings of the ceiling and beautiful tile floors that acted as a mirror to those who walked upon it, sent the two men for a loop, neither thinking they would find themselves in such a place.

"I wish Marshall could've seen this." Olaf spoke softly and tried to forcibly hold back tears that threatened to fall.

At the shorter man's words Alexander reached down and gave Olaf's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and a small sympathetic smile. After some time navigating through the hall the messenger finally brought them to a set of large carved double doors. He opened the door for them, announced their arrival, and quickly departed from the room after a rushed bow to the king.

The pair entered timidly looking upon their ruler and shuffling to the end of the large wooden table. They were tense and after a few moments remembered to bow to their sovereign, who was looking over them with a look neither of them could put an emotion to.

"So I hear you have news of what transpired at North Mountain?" the king's voice rang throughout the hall, making the two men tense at the volume.

"Yes, your majesty." Alexander answered with a sure voice.

"Well do tell, is my daughter still alive?"

"Yes, she is well—"

The king sighed, visibly relaxing at the news, his sullen features gaining some color as an invisible weight was lifted from his shoulders. A faint chuckle leaving his lips at the elation.

"though in a dangerous situation, your majesty."

"What kind of dangerous situation?" the king asked quickly his posture going quickly to that of a reserved monarch.

"She traded her life for ours, your majesty, she made a deal with the witch to stay there with her for our safe return, though I do not know what the deal is exactly."

"That sounds like something she'd do," he hummed in response to the younger man's statement, "she is otherwise alright?"

"From what I've seen yes, though we did in fact accomplish our mission, your majesty, Princess Anna was able to convince the witch to stop attacking traders in the North Mountain Pass as part of their deal."

"Excellent!" the king exclaimed a proud smile on his face, he rose from his chair and eagerly made his way over to the two men.

"This is splendid news in more ways than one…though I am curious, what do you boys plan on doing now, I would not be surprised to find you discouraged from your plan to become guards. From the look in your eyes, and from what I can see, it must have been a dreadful experience that I can't imagine."

"Yes, your majesty, we promised the princess we would continue on with our guard training, and I make sure not to break my promises." Alexander's expression as he spoke reminded King Adgar of Anna; not many people had such determination that the king knew, determination as strong as steel.

"And you boy, you feel the same way?"

Olaf nodded solemly, but firmly, thinking back to the amount of enthusiasm him and his brother had had over the years for being able to join the guard to better their lives.

"It's what my brother would want me to do, and I don't plan on letting him down." A small smile came to his face as he spoke.

"Very well then boys, I will let Sir Ivan know to expect you two there first thing this next morning," he smiled kindly, seeing little bits of his daughter in the two, "until then talk to one of the servants to get something in your stomachs, you'll need all the energy you can get for tomorrow."

Both Alexander and Olaf bowed deeply to the king, expressing their gratitude before heading quickly down the hall to the kitchens.

* * *

**The Capn' Answers:**

**Guest: **Yeah there were more chapters before, I had 8 posted. But with this revamp its easier to delete them all and just repost them when I'm ready. That way it sends out a notification that lets people know something has been added as opposed to if I just edited the chapter already up (then no notification would've been sent out)

**Other Guest:** It feels amazing to be back and working on this honestly. I wanna try and be more diligent about this story this time around because it's going to be amazing and I'm really looking forward to sharing it with everyone.


	6. Caged in Comfort

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone, hope your weeks been going well. Mine's been super hectic with finals and last minute panic because I'm great a procrastination. BUT ANYWAY, if you are also going through finals week then I wish you good luck with all your classes, and i know you can do it.

* * *

Anna stood rigid at Elsa's door, fist raised and ready to knock, though her body refused to follow through with the action. She'd been standing there for the past ten minutes, chewing nervously on her bottom lip, trying to find the last ounce of courage she needed to knock on the carved ice door.

'I can't believe I'm doing this, I must be out of my mind. I didn't do anything wrong yet I feel so guilty. Plus she kind of deserved it and everything bad that happens to her for that matter. Especially after everything she's done, but this was my fault and I'll feel bad if I don't do this so I might as well just get this over with.'

Come on Anna what kind of royal waits awkwardly outside someone's door for ten minutes, grow a backbone.

The princess took one final deep breath, cutting of her mind's rambling before aggressively knocking on the door with her off hand. The sound reverberated through the empty halls and after a few moments of silence Anna nervously stood in front of the door, hoping Elsa was actually in her room.

"What do you need?"

At the door's break down and Elsa's appearance behind it, Anna snapped into a formal stance to address the woman in front of her.

"Oh, uhh, your majesty, I-I just wanted to apologize for my actions this morning," Anna sputtered trying to remember the words she'd rehearsed in her head earlier that morning, "it was uncalled for and I hope you'll forgive my rudeness afterward."

An amused smile crossed Elsa's features as she listened to Anna, the morning's starting event crossing her mind.

"Do not worry, there is nothing to forgive, especially since you took the brunt of the damage." Elsa looked down at Anna's swollen hand.

The princess glanced down at her right hand, grimacing slightly at the dull pain radiating from it. It was bandaged in a thin ice cloth that Elsa had made for her in hopes of decreasing the swelling of the injured limb.

"I too must apologize for my overreaction to the situation, you just caught me off guard. I didn't expect you to jump me so early in the morning." A coy smile graced the elemental's lips as she spoke.

Anna internally rolled her eyes at Elsa's implications knowing nothing of the sort would ever happen, though the actual truth was just as embarrassing, if not more so.

She hadn't expected Elsa to be in her bed the next morning when she awoke. So the sight of the white haired woman staring down at her when she opened her eyes incited an instinctive reaction out of her. Her fist flew through the air before her mind could catch up to her actions, though the blow was stopped shortly by the ice shield Elsa conjured to protect herself.

Once Anna's mind was awake enough to register the pain in her arm she spent the next hour badmouthing the other woman in a fit of rage and pain. Anna wasn't proud of that, she knew she had been taught better than to snap at anyone without good reason, but the stoic emotionless look Elsa gave her throughout the whole ordeal just caused her blood to boil even more.

Anna sighed aloud rubbing a hand over her face, she was tired. And hungry. Extremely hungry. And stress just seemed to be piling on top of her at an alarming rate as the days crept along.

When she looked back up at Elsa she noticed the taller woman was looking at her quizzically, eyebrow crooked in the oddest manner.

"And what's with that face, your majesty?"

"Nothing, I am just wondering what could possibly be going on in your mind right now," she paused for a moment, expression as stoic as usual, "though, thinking about it, I should stop having you call me 'your majesty' since you seem to enjoy using it in such a distasteful, sarcastic manner, which I'm not too fond of."

The redhead smirked, proud to know that she had been successfully getting a rise out of the woman since she never visibly showed her irritation.

"That's more like it," a smile tugged at her lips as she saw the princess' mood shift, "you are terribly dull when you aren't feisty."

Anna furrowed her auburn brows, sending Elsa a questioning look, but Elsa just stared back, seemingly done talking.

She looked over the taller woman's features, thoughts beginning to run through her head at a million miles a minute. Anna wondered if the elemental's comment might have been because she noticed her recent solemn mood. And possibly felt concern for her.

'That can't be true though, a monster like her, with her kind of power there's no way she's capable of anything other than death and destruction. I've seen what she can do, that distant uncaring look in her eyes, she can't possibly feel anything. But that look she gave me, that challenging glare last night, no one has ever looked at me like that either.'

As the thought crossed her mind the image of Elsa's piercing blue eyes burned itself into the back of her eyelids. Heat began to collect in her cheeks as she remembered the previous night, she'd successfully kept her mind off of it until now. Anna tore her gaze from Elsa's and averted her gaze to the ice floor she stood on. If the taller woman noticed the princess' blushed cheeks she didn't say anything, which Anna was grateful for. But soon they fell into silence, the elemental's gaze fixed expressionless on Anna, while Anna's eyes became acquainted with the barely visible snowflake pattern that adorned the floors.

Their silence drew out for a long time. Neither knew what to do or say.

So many questions were running through the younger girl's mind, but she didn't know what to ask or if she should even try. She doubted the older woman would answer any of them. But she supposed she'd never know if she didn't try.

Anna brought her gaze back to Elsa's making sure their eyes met in hopes that Elsa would see the determination in her eyes.

"So Elsa," she waited for Elsa to show her that she was listening, "why wer—"

A loud gurgling noise erupted from the girl's stomach cutting off her question. Anna grimaced at the interruption, though her arm instinctively clutched her stomach as pain settled into the area.

How long had it been since I last ate?

"Why don't we go collect firewood so you can eat, you must be famished by now. We can talk on the way if you wish to do so."

Anna nodded curtly, though she was grateful, as was her stomach. She quickly removed herself from the doorway letting Elsa pass and take the lead. As she followed behind, Anna marveled at the ice robes that adorned the elemental's lithe figure. Her robes looked and moved like silk as she walked, and Anna briefly wondered if they were as soft as silk too, though they were made of the woman's frigid ice.

At the thought she looked down to study the bandages that encased her wrist and arm. They were cold yes, but not painfully so. They clung to her skin and seemed to have a consciousness of their own; as the swelling in her arm went down, the bandages began to melt away along with her pain. Anna could hardly believe that the ice that had taken her men and caused so much destruction, could also heal and hold so much beauty and wonder.

'She's a mystery. And one that I doubt is easily solved. But I have time to figure her out, I suppose.'

Elsa stopped when they arrived at the large double doors that led to the outside world. As she stopped Anna took her time to look at the entrance hall, it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. Twin staircases that curved to lead to the upper levels and a fountain made purely of ice took center stage to the room.

"Wooooow" the princess breathed out letting the details of the room sink in.

"Are you ready to go?"

Anna looked at the double door, large and timid, it grew in size the closer she walked to it. Beyond these doors was the rest of the world, she inhaled deeply as she pressed her uninjured hand against the intimidating ice. Though it had only been a few days since she'd been outside, it felt as if she'd spent a lifetime inside these blue crystalline walls. And the thought of what awaited her outside unnerved her slightly.

"Yes, I'm ready to go, just surprised I never saw this room before today." A hollow laugh fell past her lips as she backed away from the door so Elsa could open it.

"That would make sense since you were unconscious when you came through this room the first time. And just remember if you try to run," a smile came across Elsa's lips, "well you will not get very far if you try to run.

The elemental walked briskly past Anna up to the door pressing both palms to the ice. The large thick doors swung open in response to their maker's will, making no sound as they effortlessly glided over the floor.

As the doors opened the winter breeze from outside invaded the castle's inner walls, sending a chill down Anna's spine, though it wasn't as cold as she thought it would be considering her minimal attire. The cold wasn't bothering her as much as it usually did, if at all, and she wondered if that had something to with Elsa. Or if she was possibly acclimating to the environment she was in. Either way she was glad that the cold didn't affect her as much as it used to.

"Are you warm enough, I can have one of the furs on your bed brought to you if you need it?"

The freckled girl shook her head in response, a small smile on her lips as she embraced the outer world that she hadn't realized how much she missed. The smell of the pine trees and crisp air wafted through her nose and she crinkled it in response. Elsa followed behind her keeping a few feet of space between them as she watched the human girl, intrigue and amusement playing across her features.

They continued like that for a long while as they strolled deeper into the wilds around them. It was a comfortable silence, and the only sound that could be heard was Anna's bare feet crunching into the snow with each step she took.

"It feels odd having my bare feet in the snow," the redhead mused aloud, "but a good odd, I really like it."

Elsa hummed in response and Anna looked back to see if the white haired woman would grace her with an expression, or emotion. Her eyes were met with the most serene and peaceful expression she had ever seen, bordering on angelic in the positive light that seemed to radiate from the pale skinned woman. It was calming to see, and in that moment Anna wondered what Elsa might be feeling, here in her element, though she dared not to disturb the woman's tranquility, at least not yet.

Once they got deep enough into the forest Anna was able to find twigs and other smaller pieces of wood. She frowned at the lack of bigger pieces that she needed to make a successful fire, her stomach growling in dismay at the thought.

"I don't think we'll be able to find any wood good enough for making a fire to cook over."

Anna stopped walking, turning back to Elsa to see what the woman would want to do now.

"There should be a good amount of wood a bit east of here, a few trees have fallen over from a storm that passed through a few night ago." Elsa finished by pointing in the direction she was talking about so Anna would know which way to go.

"So how do you know that? Does the snow speak to you, or how does it work. If you don't mind me asking?"

"The snow does not "speak" to me per se," Elsa responded opening her eyes, "but I can feel what the snow feels, it is quite hard to put into words, as I'm not describing it accurately."

"Hmmm, well it must feel pretty good anyway," Anna responded, a sad smile tugging on her lips, "this is the first genuine smile that I've seen on you. I'm glad to know you still have some human left in you after all this time."

The elemental tensed visibly, hesitating in her walk for a fraction of a second before continuing after Anna. The princess completely oblivious to the fact that her words had affected her companion so.

"So, what did you want to ask before your stomach interrupted you?" Elsa's tone was cold and sharp, darker than Anna had ever heard it before. She internally flinched at the tone, though on the outside she turned to the woman in a casual disinterested manner.

"In truth there are many questions I want to ask you," Anna answered brushing a stray lock behind her ear, she then sighed before continuing, "but I doubt you'll answer most of them. So I suppose I'll start with an easy question, why were you in my room this morning?"

"To make sure you survived through the night of course," Elsa answered with disinterest, "it would be irresponsible on my part if I did not make sure you survived after you've come this far. I can't imagine having to start over in my search for a compatible woman now that I have gotten farther in the process than ever before with you."

'Wow, well she really knows how to make a kind gesture seem forced and impersonal.'

The two remained silent after that as they continued in the direction where Elsa had pointed. Once the wood was in sight Anna sprinted ahead and began picking up the pieces of wood and stacking them in her arms. A huge grin began to form on the redhead's face as she continued to collect the wood.

"What are you smiling for?" Elsa questioned as she created a few snow golems to pick up wood, "Collecting wood can't be that fun."

"Perhaps it is that much fun, but you wouldn't know since you're not doing anything other than standing there."

"I believe I am doing work. Look." Elsa quipped, her posture rigid, bordering on pompous as she gestured to her ice golems.

The freckled princess rolled her eyes at the comment and small smile tugging on her lips.

"You know when I was a young girl, me and papa used to tell stories and make games up when we collected firewood on our camping trips." Anna beamed at the memory, though it quickly turned into a frown as she realized how different a situation she was in now.

"You miss him, don't you?" Elsa's voice coming as a whisper, far closer to Anna's anatomy than she felt comfortable with.

Anna quickly retreated from the close proximity and headed to grab another piece of wood not looking at the pale woman.

"Well, of course I miss him, he's my father, and I miss my warm bed, and Gerda, and that one really cute maid that I bumped into that the other day, and that other time when the other maid brought me soup when I was sick but snuck me a piece of chocolate cake. And the chefs who gave me my own personal chocolate storage unit in the kitchen's. And the ducks by the ponds."

She hadn't noticed that tears had started to fall down her cheeks until she tasted them on her lips, and by then they had probably been flowing for a while. The sensation of cold fingers wiping the tears from her cheeks was what jerked Anna from her strained crying. She looked up from her crouching position near a piece of wood to see the tiniest hint of empathy in the ice woman's eyes, her gaze was an intense one, solely focused on her, and it willed her to stand up.

"I am not sorry for taking you from your home, or taking the lives of your men, both were a means to an end that brought you to me," Elsa started and drew her arms away from the younger woman. "But once you have successfully birthed me a child, you are free to go home and continue your life, they will be yours to raise until their time comes and they must return back to me."

Anna blinked away the rest of her tears, a confused look forming on her face.

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Did it not have that effect?"

"Ugggghhh," the princess groaned aloud slapping her palm to her forehead, "I can't believe I'll be stuck with you for who knows how long."

After that they went back to picking up firewood in silence and then decided to head back to the ice palace after Anna deemed they had enough wood for the next few days.

"So when did you stop calling your father 'papa'?" The elemental asked out of the blue as they trudged through the snow, Elsa's golems following close behind.

"What?" The princess ceased her steps clearly taken aback by the abrupt question.

"Well I just noticed that you call him 'father' now, but when you talked about your childhood you called him 'papa'."

"I suppose I do, I never noticed," Anna mused aloud and strode to catch back up with Elsa, "I suppose it started when the politics of Arendelle became more important than me to him.

Once I began to grow and the council realized that I would be the only heir, and that I had no intention of marrying and letting a man take over Arendelle, they badgered my father about how I would weaken the kingdom as a woman; that I had no right to be in a man's world. I guess after a while he began to believe them, and I just became a reminder that he'd never have a son. He loves me, I know that much, but he only ever looks at me with saddened eyes and disappointment now. Like the sight of me reminds him that he has failed in some way."

Elsa stayed silent beside the young princess as they continued their walk. They continued like that for a long while; Elsa walking beside Anna, and Anna watching her bare feet as they crunched into the snow.

The silence was broken when they had reached their final goal and had dropped off the wood in a storage room.

"So how is this going to work," Anna inquired looking over her shoulder at Elsa, "the cooking I mean. I can light a fire but I'm guessing you don't have pots or anything."

Elsa paused at the comment, tilting her head slightly as she contemplated the question.

"There may be some in the room where the merchant supplies is. I'll send some of my golems down to look for them, in the meantime you can head back to your room."

Anna nodded, recognizing the elemental's tone as a command and not a suggestion. She sighed as she walked up the flights of stairs, her stomach hurting as she did so. The growling had stopped, but in its place a terrible pain had set in and it felt like there was something in her stomach trying to eat its way out.

"Gods, I never knew this is what being starved felt like, and it's only been a few days," the princess whimpered as she used the handrails of the stairs to help her along, "I feel really bad for the people in Arendelle who live like this all the time. I'll have to change that when I get back."

When she finally made it to her room, she flopped onto the bed and curled up tightly in her blankets. She wanted to rest, and hopefully wake up feeling warmer than she did now. She couldn't feel the cold anymore in the castle, but she couldn't feel warmth either, even within the blankets. It was an empty feeling.

I wonder if this is how Elsa feels.

It was the last thought she had before she drifted to sleep.

When Anna awoke when the sun had started to set, she couldn't physically see it, but she could tell by the colors being refracted by the icy walls. She stretched and yawned, popping her back a few times before getting up and grabbing her mother's cloak from the chair in the corner and draping it over her shoulders. She looked around the room inspecting the details that had been burned into her memory since she arrived. The room was beautiful and comfy in its own way, but a cage is still a cage no matter what it looks like. Staring at the icy walls Anna tried to recall all the events in her life that had brought her here.

'I wonder if I could've done something differently, a decision I could've made that would have saved everyone's' lives. Maybe the council was right about me. Maybe I am unfit to rule. With just that one decision to come here, I've gotten three men killed and have left Arendelle without a rightful heir. I've no doubt embarrassed father further.

Anna exhaled a breath and closed her eyes, clutching her mother's cloak around her like a security blanket. Tears began to slowly stream down her freckled cheeks and she curled into herself sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed.

'I'm a failure. A complete and utter failure. I'm sure mother's ashamed of me too. I wonder what she'd say if she saw me now, being used for sex. I'm surely at the lowest point I can get. All thanks to Elsa.'

Anna let out a small hollow laugh at the last thought, and looked down at her injured hand. The ice gauze had long since melted away but a slight pain radiated from it still as she flexed the appendage. A spark of anger flashed over her features as a thought struck her.

'This is Elsa's fault. She's the one who took the villagers. She's the one who has been blocking the trade route. She's the one who killed my men. And took Olaf's brother from him. She's the one who took my purity. Injured my hand. In the end it all comes back to her.'

As the thoughts circulated through her mind, Anna's anger increased. Her blood was boiling and the room began to feel too small around her only fueling her anger more. She bolted up and paced over to the chair in the small corner, she grabbed it and threw it at the wall watching the ice shatter as it came into contact with the unyielding material.

A slight bit of satisfaction surged through the princess at the sight and her anger ebbed slightly. She peered around the room for something else to unleash her anger upon, but the room was barren, everything else in the area was too large to be picked up. She screamed in frustration and began pacing in the room. Anna wanted, needed, to leave the room, the longer she stayed in it the more she began to feel like the walls were closing in on her, whispering her failures into her ears. Her anger was subsiding, leaving her to battle her thoughts in the silence of her room.

I'll go mad if I stay in here. I need to get out.

"Elsa!" the girl screeched at the top of her lungs hoping Elsa would hear her wherever she was, "Elsa! I need out please open the door, please, I don't think I can stand it in here for another minute."

The freckled princess banged both fists on the magical door, ignoring the pain in her injured hand. After a few minutes of this she slide down to the floor and leaned her head against it, knocking her head against the ice hoping to get her thoughts to leave.

After what seemed like an eternity in the princess' mind, but was a few moments in reality, the ice door dissolved and Anna flopped back into the hallway. At the feel of the cool ice on her back and the knowledge that she was no longer in the room, Anna cracked an eye open and looked up; she was greeted by the stone cold expression of the elemental as she peered down at her. A sheepish grin formed on Anna's face. Now that she was out of the room her actions seemed kind of childish, though the uneasiness of those long drawn out minutes had yet to fully leave her.

Elsa looked up from the blushing princess and glanced inside the room, inspecting it critically.

"What happened to the chair?"

Anna winced at Elsa's clipped tone, it reminded her of when Gerda used to scold her as a child. Accusing and not really a question, since the answer was already known.

"I threw it against the wall. And then it shattered."

"I see. Do you foresee this becoming a frequent event?"

The princess tilted her head and shot a questioning gaze up at Elsa, not really comprehending the question.

"I only ask because I rather you not break my furniture all the time. It's easy to remake, but it's more about the principle of the matter."

"It might," Anna confessed exhaling a breath, watching it fog in the cold temperature, "being here makes me a bit tense, and just sitting in my room all day makes me uneasy. I need to do something, hit something, just to let off steam somehow."

"I suppose I can accommodate, but we'll discuss it at dinner. Come we've found you some cooking supplies."

Anna scrambled up from her spot on the ground and quickly fell into step behind Elsa as they headed to the kitchens. The walk was silent except for the incessant gurgling noises that came from the freckled princess' belly every so often.

"Are we close? If I have to wait any longer I might resort to eating whatever is closest to me, which in this case would be you." She growled below her breath, a hint of a threat in the words.

She wasn't sure if Elsa could hear her, and if she did she didn't comment on it.

"Hungry enough to eat me, hmmm?" Elsa stopped in her step and sent a triumphant smirk over her shoulder to Anna, then resumed her walk chuckling at the way Anna's face paled at her implication.

"W-what, NO! That's not what I meant," Anna's face burned in embarrassment, "I meant like cannibalism…I didn't mean it like that."

"Well, I'm sure you'd be satisfied either way."

The blushing princess opened her mouth to refute the elemental's statement, but after a minute of silence and her mouth gaping like a fish out of water, she just closed her mouth and sighed in defeat.

They continued through the halls until Elsa turned a corner and they arrived at a set of giant double doors that seemed to take up the whole hallway.

"This doesn't look like the kitchen." Anna gave Elsa a questioning glance, a small frown forming on her face when her stomach growled again.

"That's because it's the food storage room, I figured you'd like to choose what food you want to make."

Anna smiled brightly walking up to the doors with a confident stride and pushed on the doors with both hands. The door didn't budge. She groaned and rested her head on the door before backing up and gesturing for Elsa to work her magic.

"Do you have the ability to make it so I can open doors here, kind of tired of being shut out and in everything?"

"I suppose." Elsa answered as she laid her hands on the doors. They responded immediately and glided open revealing the massive storage room.

The ceilings were low but the room stretched on for a great distance. The area lit up by fluorescent ice crystals that lined the ceiling. Covering the floor were piles of supplies and goods, from furs and blankets and general everyday objects to intricate carved wooden furniture and jewels. Narrow pathways were visible between the piles making a bright blue roadway that ran like veins through the room.

Anna walked slowly past Elsa into the room letting the wonderment of it sink in, she'd never seen so many things in one place. Her wonderment quickly dissolved as a thought struck her.

How many people had been slaughtered over the years for there to be this much supplies.

The image of the pond full of frozen corpses; faces forever stuck in horror flashed through her mind. A wave a nausea washed over Anna at the thought and she clutched her already pained stomach. After a moment she gathered herself and straightened her posture, if anything this just gave her another reason to abhor the woman who now stood next to her.

"The food is in the back corner."

Anna watched where Elsa pointed and immediately started trekking in that direction. Though her appetite had lessened greatly, she was too hungry to not eat, even if the taste ended up being foul in her mouth she needed the nourishment. Elsa followed closely behind giving her directions but otherwise staying silent. If not for her direction giving every so often, the princess might have assumed Elsa had stayed behind, the pale woman's footsteps were silent behind her.

The redhead gave a sigh of relief when they finally made it to the pile of frozen goods, consisting of meats and breads and many other foreign and some locally grown supplies.

"Well this should last me a little while, there's enough food here to feed Arendelle for a few months."

"It's been collecting for a long time so I would assume there's a lot."

Anna shuffled towards the pile and began perusing through the frozen assortment.

"So how long have you been attacking traders on this route? It can't have only been just recently, there's too much supplies here for that to be true."

The elemental mulled it over for a good five minutes, seeming to lose herself in thought.

"Off and on for the last 200 years. Maybe more, maybe less. It all blurs together after a while."

"I see. Well I've grabbed the food I want to cook for tonight, shall we get going?"

Elsa nodded curtly and turned on her heel to leave the way they came, Anna trailing close behind her.

"So will Kristoff be back soon?" Anna spoke in a hopeful tone after the silence became too much for her.

"He should be back before dusk tomorrow. Why do you ask?"

The princess quirked an eyebrow at Elsa's tone, it seemed sharp and clipped, though she brushed it off thinking she'd imagined it.

"Well a few reasons…for one I still need medical attention, and the bleeding in my side has made my thin clothes dirty. And I'd like some proper attire instead of this baggy men's nightwear," Anna sniffed at the clothes, flinching at their repugnant scent, "that smell like reindeer."

Elsa stopped in front of what the redhead assumed was the kitchen. "I suppose it would smell like reindeer with how much time Kristoff spends with Sven."

"I'm wearing Kristoff's clothes?"

Anna entered the room after Elsa opened it and began setting up everything she'd need to cook her food.

"Yes," Elsa answered walking in gracefully after Anna, "your uniform was ripped and bloody and there was nothing here for you to change into. Kristoff reluctantly gave up his clothes after some prodding, and then changed you and dressed your wounds. For not being a people person he's a surprisingly good caretaker."

'That means he saw me naked…can this get any worse. I might die of embarrassment here long before Elsa get the chance to.'

A long groan escaped past Anna's lips as she buried her face in her hands. After collecting herself she went about thawing and preparing her meal. As the princess went to work shuffling back and forth between the things she was making, Elsa stood in place and watched her every movement. Once the food was prepared Elsa created some ice plates for Anna to place the food on and they headed towards the dining hall.

"Well I guess this is try two, hopefully it goes better than the first." Anna commented sliding into the seat she occupied the previous night, Elsa doing the same.

The princess scarfed her food down quickly, not caring for etiquette. She hadn't eaten in days and she wasn't about to stay on ceremony for Elsa.

"Are you going to eat anything? I mean it's a tad cold from being on your ice plates but other than that the foods fine. Your ice proved very useful for preserving the food."

Elsa shook her head in response sitting silent and rigid as she watched Anna. After a few minutes of this Anna stopped eating, Elsa's unwavering gaze making it hard for her to eat.

"Can you do something other than stare at me while I eat, it's kind of unnerving?" Anna asked holding a piece of meat a few inches from her mouth.

"What else is there to do?" Elsa quirked her head looking genuinely curious. Anna would've thought it was cute if she didn't hate almost every fiber in the other woman's body.

"If you actually try the meat that I've made, you can focus on chewing instead of staring at me."

A small smirk pulled at Elsa's lips at the sarcastic tone that accompanied the princess' words.

Elsa locked her gaze with Anna seeing if the girl's resolve would waver and she'd retract her words. But Anna held her gaze firmly. After the silent battle the elemental sighed in defeat gesturing for Anna to give her some food. A triumphant grin spread on Anna's face and she put a few pieces of meat on a plate and slid it over to Elsa.

Elsa looked down at the plate and eyed the meat warily, she hadn't had meat since she was a child, a mortal child. After a long paused she picked a piece of meat up between her fingers and placed it in her mouth chewing slowly. Her eyebrows quirked back and forth as her brain tried to relearn the taste of the morsel on her taste buds. Anna was right, this certainly gave her something to do other than staring. She swallowed and grabbed for another piece, repeating the process until her brain became satisfied with the new knowledge.

"So Elsa," Anna coughed into her hand to get Elsa's attention, "do you think I'd be able to write a letter to my father to let him know of our agreement, formally that is, since I'm sure my guards relayed the message when they returned to Arendelle."

Elsa stopped her eating and fell back into her cool and collected persona.

"You can if you find some writing utensils in the storage room, other than that I don't know what to tell you, unless you don't mind chiseling your message into a block of ice."

"I see," Anna's face became crestfallen at her words, "do you think I can search for it tomorrow?"

"Yes, that is doable."

"And also what you said earlier about accommodating to my stress, what did you have in mind?"

Anna finished off the food on her plate and leaned back in her chair, patting her stomach.

"I can create ice golems for you to spar against outside. My furniture stays intact, and you can unless your anger in a productive way."

"Sounds fair. So now that dinner seems to be coming to a close and it's getting late now I'll be retiring to my chambers." Anna sighed stretching as she rose from her chair, a mighty yawn escaping her.

Her yawn was cut off midway when the icy chill of Elsa's magic confined her to the table. Anna looked down at the ice shackle holding her right arm to the table, she gave a disinterested huff at the contraption.

"Really," Anna slightly slumped when she turned back to Elsa, "why the shackle this time?"

Elsa pointed Anna with an incredulous glare, like the answer was obvious and that she was personally offended that the princess didn't know.

"You can't go to bed until you've performed your service to me. Until you're pregnant your body is mine, every night."

"I never agreed to that, not every night, that's unjustified, I could be pregnant right now. We should wait until Kristoff comes back and can confirm it or not." Anna crossed her arms as best she could with her restraints and sent the elemental a stern look.

Elsa held Anna's gaze, each waiting for the other to back down. After what seemed like an eternity Anna lost her patience with the situation.

"I know a way we can decide this."

"Why do we have to decide anything, you made a deal, I'm in the right here." At that comment a surge of anger rolled through Anna, she wanted to smack the stuck up elemental.

"Just listen for five seconds, placate me." The freckled princess growled out.

"We can decide with a game of chess. Winner gets what they want. If you win I'll have sex with you whenever you want, until I become pregnant. But if I win then you can't have sex with me unless I want it. Except for once a month so I can still fulfill my end of the bargain eventually. Sound fair?"

"I accept your terms. If that is the wager then we can head to the library, I have a chess set there."

"You have a chess set? That's kind of odd." Anna mused aloud as she rubbed her now freed wrist and trailed along behind Elsa.

"I'm impressed," Anna remarked as they sat down on either side of the chess board, "it's not made of ice. How long have you had it?"

Elsa's face turned dark at the question, a slight hint of something flashing across her features before she became rigid again.

"A very long time…now are you ready to begin?"

"Oh yeah, I was born ready for this."

"I sincerely doubt that, but begin anyway. I want to make this quick."

Anna smirked and made her first move.

The game continued on smoothly for a long time, the game neck and neck, each player taking crucial pieces of the other. After an hour of carefully deliberated moves only a few key pieces remained on both sides.

'Gods, I didn't think she'd be this good. But who am I kidding she was probably around when the game first came to Arendelle, this was an ill thought out deal. Why do I always do this to mys…wait is that a checkmate I see.'

The princess smirked moving her piece to its destined spot without another thought, and letting it go, locking her move in.

"Check and Mate."

"You miscalculated, princess."

Elsa gracefully picked up her knight and took down Anna's king with it, sealing the younger woman's fate.

Anna saw the move in slow motion, the repercussions of her brash thinking falling on her shoulders like the weight of the ocean. Her eyes widened as the carved white horse knocked down her king.

"Guess that means you should start heading up to your room and getting ready for a busy night." Elsa fixed the freckled woman with the most seductive, triumphant, and devilish smirk Anna had ever seen.

A white hot surge of anger shot through Anna at the turn of events. Her body acting out before her mind could catch up to the action. All she could register was the feel of the old wooden board in her hands and the sight of chess pieces flying.

* * *

**Capn' Cook Answers:**

**Guest on ch.1: **Okay so I know this isn't chapter one but I have no other way of talking to you so yeah. I did read everything in your review and I am glad you gave me the information on the medieval hierarchy. I'm plan to do a little bit more research of my own, not that i don't trust you, and then I will go back and edit the previous chapters. Also I do realize I have a lot of run-on sentences, which I've had for forever I have gotten better over the past year it's just is still clearly lacking. I do plan on paying more attention to that when I start writing new chapters (cuz as for now I'm just doing minor edits to get the ball rolling again) but if I can find a beta somewhere out there that would also help as well. As for why everyone is angry (and i have no idea what period juice would have to do with that since being on your period doesn't automatically make you angry) I wanted to ask if you could elaborate more, as I don't see everyone being characterized as angry. If you give me specific examples I can look more into it. Also sorry this has so many words. Hopefully you read this. But as an overall thing, thank you for the critique I do enjoy getting constructive feedback so I can work on it in the future.

**Guest on ch.5: **I don't know if this is the same person, I want to assume so. But I can't be sure. But again I'll correct this once I've done more research and can put all the details together in my mind.


	7. Heat

**Author's Note: **Hey happy belated holidays everyone. This chapter actually was finished and edited earlier in the week but I've been busy with family and friends and waited so I could ask one of my friends to Beta this for me. So hopefully they will be able to continue to edit my chapters with me in the future.

**Warning: **This chapter is of sexual content. I'll be making a line break where the nsfw stuff starts so you can skip it if you want. At the same time I do try and make the smut relative to the storyline in a way that gets across characterization and other things so it can be important.

And as a last note. I don't have much experience with smut writing. So any advice you can give me would be very helpful. And bringing characterization into smut is actually VERY difficult as I've had to learn. So if my characterization seems off, it just might be and I missed something. Let me know and I'll take another look at it. And as always thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Love, Capn' Cooks

* * *

"Was that really necessary Anna?" Elsa quirked an accusing brow at the steaming princess.

She lowered her hands from where she'd reflectively casted her magic to catch the falling pieces. A small sigh escaped the elemental's lips as she plucked the chess pieces from the ice that had sprung forth from the ground to catch them.

Anna huffed in response crossing her arms across her chest.

"Sorry." she grumbled out, refusing to make eye contact with the ivory haired woman. "I'll just head up to the room and start getting ready."

Anna walked purposefully out of the room keeping her stance tall and prideful. She pushed down the guilt that churned in her stomach as she walked through the hallways, after all it wasn't like she had done something particularly wrong, and her reaction was valid. But the split second look on Elsa's face when she threw the chess board told the princess otherwise.

"Ugh, I can't seem to do anything right." she groaned loudly, the image of Elsa's horrified expression stuck in the very forefront of her mind.

The redheaded princess sulked through the hallways of the ice palace before she came to the door of her room. Anna cautiously put a hand on the cool surface hoping it would respond to her touch. Hoping that Elsa had granted her with the ability to move around the castle as she pleased; a small bit of freedom in her prison.

The door responded hesitantly, slowly dissolving and revealing the inner room that she'd become familiar with over the past few days. Anna sighed and stepped through the threshold letting out a breath of contentment as she felt the immediate temperature shift. It was only a few degrees warmer in her room than the surrounding halls, but it made all the difference at the end of the day.

Anna crawled onto the bed and buried her body into the fur blankets, reveling in how the hairs gently tickled her skin, but caressed it softly at the same time. She stretched out and folded her arms under her head wanting to get a few moments of rest before Elsa arrived.

She was beginning to dose off when she felt an odd shift in the room, getting the intense feeling that someone was watching her. A gasp escaped her throat and she shot up into a sitting position when a cold hand grazed the skin under her loose shirt.

"Dammit Elsa you have to make noise when you walk into a room, you almost scared me out of my skin." Anna scolded as she eased back into the bed.

"You're being awfully well mannered tonight. Already on the bed and ready for me." Elsa chuckled lightly as she settled her body atop Anna's.

"And you are being incredibly familiar with me," Anna rolled her eyes at Elsa's all too pleased self, "get off of me and get started. I want to get this over with quickly."

* * *

"As you wish princess."

Anna tried to formulate a retort to that, mouth opening to protest when Elsa slide her hands under her shirt again. She could feel the trails of ice marking her skin in the wake of Elsa's finger tips. A hiss escaped her lips instead and she gripped her fists in the blankets. She was always caught off guard by the feeling and didn't know what to make of it. On the one hand, the ice had a bite to it that was painful. But on the other, the sensation of the elemental's fingers sent chills down her spine, in the best way possible.

Elsa retracted her hands and began undoing the buttons on Anna's shirt. Her movements swift and calculated. When she was finished Anna shifted up and pulled the garment off, relaxing back into the bed afterward. Elsa started undoing Anna's pants next, unlacing the drawstring and sliding them off with an air of caution. She eyed the princess warily as she removed the last of Anna's clothing.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Anna questioned, narrowing her eyes at Elsa and crossing her arms over her bare chest.

"I am just surprised you are accepting it so easily this time around, you haven't pushed me away or cursed my existence or anything. Where did your fight go?"

The princess caught a small tinge of disappointment in Elsa's tone, the elemental deflating for the briefest of moments before she noticed that she'd let her guard down; then her walls were back up again.

"The more I struggle the longer this will take," Anna shrugged as best she could in her position, "I rather just get it over with. I want to go home."

Anna bit her lip nervously in thought, and Elsa waited until the younger woman continued.

"It won't hurt as much as last time will it?"

"No, it shouldn't," Elsa answered as she drew patterns on Anna's skin with her fingers, "Now that my magic is a part of you, intercourse in itself should be sufficient for our purposes. My magic knows my intentions and it will carry out my will."

Anna nodded understandingly and locked eyes with Elsa, communicating that she was ready. A satisfied smile formed on Elsa's face and she descended to meet Anna's lips with her own.

Anna met the kiss with some hesitation and eased her arms onto Elsa's shoulders to rest. She let Elsa lead the kiss, only responding when Elsa's gaze became hungrier and she retracted from Anna's mouth to nibble on her neck and collar greedily. Anna gasped at the change in pace, feeling her arousal ignite as Elsa bit her claim onto the princess.

A deep flush set in on Anna's freckles highlighting her cheeks though she couldn't tell what had caused it; whether it was her current activities with Elsa or the burning embarrassment of the noise she made spurned by Elsa's actions. She didn't know which was more embarrassing.

"You know, I don't know if it's entirely fair that I'm the only one naked."

"If you want my clothes off that badly, you have to take them off yourself." Anna could feel Elsa's coy grin as the woman's lips ghosted over her skin down towards her chest.

Anna pushed gently on Elsa's shoulders to stop the taller woman from her descent, answering Elsa's confused stare with a smirk of her own. While Elsa was slightly disoriented from her actions being stopped, Anna grabbed Elsa by the collar of her robes and pulled her down until their lips met again. She took the lead of the kiss, biting at Elsa's lower lips and hungrily sliding her tongue into the elemental's mouth. And when Elsa had finally begun to relax into Anna's body, the latter yanked the robes off Elsa's shoulder, barely noticing the coolness of the garment compared to the heat burning beneath her skin.

Elsa's eyebrows shot up, eyes wide, at the princess' aggressive action, but after a few moments she settled back into her previous actions. She grabbed roughly at Anna's breast rolling the peak between her fingers and brought her mouth down onto the other one. Elsa heard a loud moan fill the room at her actions, pleased that Anna was being so vocal tonight. She suckled on Anna's breast biting the nub every so often, blowing cool air on them whenever she felt like sending a shiver down Anna's spine. And dragged the fingernails on her free hand lazily over the princess' exposed side.

Elsa left Anna's breast with a wet pop before returning to the girl's jugular, sucking as hard as she could at the redhead's pulse point until Anna unraveled beneath her.

"E-e-elsa," the younger breathed airily, eyes clouded over with lust, "please, get on with it."

Elsa chuckled in reply but quickly complied with the princess' wishes.

She started kissing a trail down Anna's stomach leaving a snowflake pattern in her wake causing Anna's breath to hitch. When she made it to Anna's hips she stopped, taking a few moments to gently kiss and bite at the area. As she did so she run a finger up Anna's slit coming back with lubricated fingers. Anna's breath caught in her throat and she visibly shivered.

"Well, you definitely seem ready."

"Shut up," Anna retorted defensively at the sight of the triumphant grin on Elsa's face, "you should put your mouth to better use than teasing me."

A mischievous glint sparked in Elsa's eyes at the subtle message and she lowered her body until she had situated herself in between Anna's legs. She smiled slyly before blowing an icy breath on the princess' nether region, coating the fine auburn curls that covered the area in a thin layer of frost.

Anna gasped loudly, the contrasting feeling of cold on her heated core bringing her right to the edge of orgasm.

"Ahh...gods."

Elsa smirked knowingly and lowered her mouth to Anna's entrance. She swiped her tongue through the folds before using it to tease Anna's entrance. The girl below her responding with squirms and mewls of pleasure. Elsa swept her tongue between Anna's pink folds one last time then brought her attention to the princess' nerve filled nub. She locked eyes with Anna, her predatory icy blues meeting lust shrouded teal, then sucked gently on the nub not breaking her gaze.

Anna threw her head back unable to hold the elemental's gaze when a wave of pleasure crashed down on her. Her nails dug deep into the furs below, holding onto the hairs for dear life. She couldn't stop herself from grinding her hips into Elsa's mouth, desperate for release. And she didn't release Elsa's name was breathlessly tumbling from her lips as she pleaded for Elsa to end her sweet torture.

Elsa relented her teasing and eased two fingers into Anna making sure to graze the sweet spot in the freckled princess' inner walls. Anna came instantly with a silent shriek, seemingly caught off guard by her own release. But Elsa continued to pump her finger firmly in and out, dragging out the younger's orgasm until her squirming ceased and she whimpered for Elsa to stop actions on freshly sensitive areas.

The elemental hovered over Anna watching the latter's chest rise and fall erratically, until is slowed in pace as her breathing evened out.

"Well, I suppose that was alright." Anna panted after the silence dragged on and her afterglow dimmed.

Elsa raised an eyebrow at Anna's words but when she looked at the princess' face she could only see contentment and maybe a tinge of satisfaction. But she wasn't sure so she didn't respond. She crawled off Anna before standing and willing her powers to form a new robe around her figure.

And with that Elsa swiftly left the room, the pads of her bare feet barely making a whisper against the ice floors of the hallways.

A sigh escaped Anna's lips, a large yawn following close behind. She still had questions she wanted to ask, things she needed to know and understand, but she supposed that they could wait for tomorrow. She was exhausted and she'd probably get more information out of Kristoff anyway.


	8. Hidden Mysteries

**Author's Note: **Hey everybody, sorry this is a few days late but it required A LOT more editing than I first imagined and I've been on vacation for the holidays as well. After this we'll finally be getting into some new content which I'm excited to write and see how it plays out. Also hope everyone is having a great 2016 so far. And I guess I kinda changed up the format a bit in this chapter so that's new and slightly unexpected, but necessary I suppose.

xXx= a shift in time. it was either this or using italics, but using italics for a whole flashback sequence is super excessive

-= which in the chapter is a solid line (but it won't let me do that right now) is a change in POV. My original intent was for this to all be in Anna's perspective but that's just unrealistic with how complex Elsa is as a character and how unknown she is. It will be mostly in Anna's POV but I will continue to add snippets of Elsa's POV when needed.

**PSA VALDE GRAVIS: For now I cannot write. Apparently my microsoft office just expired and I do not yet have the money to renew it. It should be renewed within a week or two hopefully. (It depends on when my mom decides to renew it honestly). I try to find somewhere else to work on my chapters if I feel comfortable enough. But yeah, just so you know, if I don't update on time I'm not MIA, I'm just having technical difficulties.**

Anna stood tall, glaring up at the enormously large double doors that kept her locked in Elsa's ice palace. The only physical thing that stood between herself and her freedom; from her home, her family, and her responsibilities as heir to Arendelle's throne.

Her hands flexed at her side, fists clenching and unclenching as she thought of all the reasons she should leave the ice palace, and all the reasons she should stay. This was the last door in the ice palace that she'd yet to try to open. All of the other doors were still ajar from her earlier escapade through the halls. At least, almost all of them.

xXx

There was a visible spring to the princess' steps as she explored the halls of the ice palace. She'd risen with the sun, excitement coursing through her veins at the new found freedom Elsa had given her. Anna hadn't had time last night to wander around the hallways to test how far her freedom went, but she was eager to find the limit to her abilities at the start of the new day. Ready to investigate every nook and cranny of the palace.

Her investigation had proven very fruitful so far, upon trial and error she'd learned that the rooms on the level of her room could not be opened except for her own. There were only three doors, and the other door besides Elsa and hers she'd assumed was Kristoff's, since he was the only other person who she'd seen here, and he seemed quite comfortable and at home in the ice palace. After that she'd descended the stairs to try opening the rooms on the two levels below that. The level just below her room housed the library and a bathroom down the hall, and Anna had made a mental note to go back to the library after she finished mapping out the palace's levels, to see what kind of books were housed by the hundreds-of-years-old elemental.

The level below that, housed a great number of doors that Anna was eager to open. Through wandering the hallways she'd found two ballrooms, or what could be considered a ballroom. Though the princess doubted Elsa used it as such. And many bedroom like rooms, though they weren't nearly as nice and put together as her own room; most completely bare, with piles of straw that acted as the bed. She'd left the rooms quickly and tried not to think about what Elsa had used them for. She then took a quick detour to try opening the storage room. It opened with ease and Anna had searched the area thoroughly to find a quill and paper to write a letter to her father when she decided to go to the library. The search had taken longer than anticipated, finding supplies wasn't hard, but finding usable supplies proved almost impossible. All the paper and ink wells she found were either ripped to a degree of being useless or the black liquid being frozen. Luckily she'd found some well-preserved paper in the drawer of a wooden desk, and some ink that had somehow ended up in the pile of furs and kept safe from the cold harsh environment of the area.

Scouring the rest of the lower level with the paper, quill, and inkwell in hand she'd almost missed the slight discrepancy in the illuminated ice that made up the floor. Curiosity peaked at the prospect of another area to explore, Anna had quickly put down the supplies and practically slammed the palms of her hands into the ground, gliding her digits over the smooth surface hoping for something to react to her touch. After a few moments the ice began to react, a small area of the ground dissolving to reveal a set of stairs that seemed to lead down to oblivion. Anna couldn't make out anything in the darkness, a very heavy fear set in her bones as to what she might find down those stairs. A cold sweat had broken out on her body and with a shaken sigh, Anna closed her eyes and willed the door to solidify as it was before.

xXx

A shiver passed through Anna's body and she deeply inhaled before walking up to the castle's front door. After a moment's pause she rubbed her hands together and pressed them to it. A minute passed. And then another. A sigh escaped Anna as she removed her palms from the double doors.

"Well, I anticipated as much, Elsa would be crazy to let me open the front door. I suppose now is as good a time as any to write that letter to father."

The princess turned on her heel and headed back up to the library, collecting her writing supplies from the hallway she'd left it in on the way up.

As she entered the library she cautiously looked into the dim lit space, the room still slightly illuminated by the dying fire that had been lit last night. The embers in the fireplace at the back of the room hissed at her arrival, and her actions of the previous night flashed into her mind. At the memory Anna slowly made her way to the table in the center of the room that held the worn chess set, the one that Elsa seemed to hold so dear.

She kneeled down to the artifact's level once she reached the edge of the table, depositing her writing utensils on the table, and squinting to make out the details of the chess pieces in the dim lights. The paint was mostly, if not completely worn on all of the pieces, and their carved design were in a much more simple style than any of the chess sets that were made in Arendelle nowadays.

"I wonder how long Elsa has had this?" the princess questioned aloud as she picked up the pieces delicately and rolled them in her fingers, getting a feel for their texture.

After Anna had thoroughly pondered over the object, she let her eyes wander around the room, scanning the worn dark wooden shelves and wondering what their contents included. She gently put the pieces in her hands back on the chess board in their assigned positions, making sure it looked exactly as it had before she entered the room, and walked over to the shelves closest to the fireplace.

Her eyes narrowed as she struggled to read the worn books that called the shelves their home, her lithe fingers gently caressing the spines to guide her eyes along the words.

"Settlement Records of the First Year…Annual Traditions of Arendelle…," Anna mumbled the titles to herself as she searched, but stopped her skimming at a heavily worn leather journal, thin from old age, "and what do we have here?"

The princess plucked the journal from the shelf, going into a fit of sneezing at the burst of dust that accompanied the harsh movement. Anna brushed off the cover once her fit ended and opened the book's cover skimming the journals contents.

Inside the pages of the leather bound paper the story of ambitious man unfolded before Anna's eyes. A story of humble beginnings. To discontent, and a will to rise to where the man believed himself to belong. The death of many people and the destruction of villages as he grew in power and conquered the land to call it his own. And finally to the rise of a kingdom, which he named Arendelle; after a very mystic ally that helped the man build his legacy.

'Wait…What?" Anna thought rereading the last few pages in the book again, her eyes widened as realization struck her, "This is the journal of Arendelle's first king. But how can that be? All our histories tell of Arendelle being cultivated from unclaimed and wild land. No one was here before us…"

Frantically, the redhead scoured the library looking for any other unmarked books, or books whose titles peaked her interest as to their true knowledge. Before long there was a large pile of books stacked on the ice table, their volumes vicariously balancing as they towered on the table. Anna peered at the dying light of the fire, its glow so dim she could not read the words on the books covers. The redhead huffed a breath watching the air fog from where she had expelled her air. She rubbed her arms for friction, finally feeling the slight bite of the cold air now that her rushing around the library had ceased.

'I should probably get more firewood, and maybe some blankets.'

At the thought Anna turned on her heel and headed back down to the storage room. She walked as silently along as she could, peeking around corners before she turned hallways, keeping an eye out for the ice elemental. Anna couldn't full well tell why she felt the undeniable need to lurk through the halls as stealthily as possible, but she had a feeling, an itch that she wasn't supposed to be knowing the knowledge that those tomes contained. She shook the feelings from her bones as she went along, Anna figured it was better to snoop and face Elsa's possible repercussions than laze about the day feeling sorry for herself in the predicament that was her life right now.

That and the fact that Anna felt that as heir to Arendelle she ought to know the true history behind the origin of her kingdom in order to rule it well. It was her family history.

Reaching the large doors of the storage room once again, Anna gently placed her palm on the cold surface and waited for it to respond. As it did she walked briskly through the piles to where she remembered the firewood stack being. After finding it she picked a few logs from the neat stacked pile and explored through the surrounding piles until she found a jumble of furs and pillows. The princess picked up the heavy furs and draped them over her shoulder with a huff. She then picked up a few pillows, folded them under her arm and headed back towards the library.

With a warm fire now roaring, Anna settled into her newly made nest of furs and pillows, and relaxed and began reading away into the books she'd found.

Anna yawned, tears escaping the corner of her eyes and she placed another book in her "have read" pile. She looked to her right to the ever shrinking stack of books she had yet to read and grabbed at the next book on the stack.

"Another journal," Anna mused aloud as she readjusted her position of laying on her stomach, her arms were beginning to numb, "this one looks a tad bit different than the rest of the king's journals."

The princess' eyebrows wiggled as she looked at the book carefully before opening up the front cover. In the bottom corner of the first page, the owner's name of the journal was displayed in delicate writing. The writing contrasting greatly to the first king's calligraphy. Anna's eyes squinted as she tried to read the name through her dark shadow that loomed over the page due to the intense flames behind her that lit the room.

_Elsa of Arendelle_.

Anna's heart beat began to race, her eyes roving over the three words numerous times to make sure she was reading it right. She stared blankly at the inside cover unsure of whether she should read the journal or not.

'It's not really my place to read this, it's her personal business…but I could learn so much about her through this, and maybe figure out how she turned into what she is now…I could also learn that through time and being patient and actually getting to know her…not that she'd ever tell me anyway, I'm just a broodmare to her, and the answers I seek are right in my hands.'

The princess' face scrunched up as her brain warred back and forth on what to do with the leather object. After a few minutes of pondering, a drawn out sigh escaped her lips and she put the journal back from the stack she grabbed it from.

"I'm too honorable for my own good."

Her mind become distracted at the discovery of the journal and Anna huffed indignantly before laying back and settling into her fur nest, gluing her eyes to the details of the ceiling.

She was snapped from her daydreaming when she heard Elsa's footsteps padding towards where she lay in the blankets; the temperature slightly dropping as she neared.

"I see you've made yourself comfortable."

Anna tilted her head back to look up at Elsa, the elder woman's attire was as impeccable as always; Elsa's snowy robes draping over her body in an ethereal way, one slender leg escaping from its confinement. She peered her gaze upward until she met Elsa's gaze, noticing the slight hint of a smirk on the elemental's features.

"So, why did you try to escape today?" Elsa demanded when she realized Anna wasn't going to respond.

Irritation prickled in Anna at the tone Elsa was using with her. Like she was a child being scolded for not listening to her elders.

"What? Me…try to escape?" Anna scoffed in mock hurt, raising her hand to her heart as if she'd be wounded, "now why ever would I want to leave this beautifully warm home? Where I'm fed almost regularly, barely clothed, and used for breeding your child, only to be left alone in bed afterward all by my lonesome. I say Elsa, the accusation on my disloyalty hurts."

A frown settled in immediately on Elsa's face as the words left Anna's mouth. Her arms crossing over her chest as she listened to the princess' mocking.

"Well, if you do not wish to be in my company, as it would appear, then you can stay here with your books while I go for a walk."

Anna shot up into a sitting position as she turned to Elsa with a smile spreading on her face.

"Really? Like a walk outside? In the snow? Through the forest? That kind of walk?"

"Yes, now go grab one of the furs from your room, we need to head out soon. We have to be back before Kristoff returns."

The redhead nodded enthusiastically before quickly getting up and running down the halls to her room. A small smile came to Elsa's face when she heard a shriek come from the ice hallways, a string of curses following the sound of Anna's impact with the floor.

Anna rubbed at her now sore shoulder as she walked into her room, walking over to the bed to grab one of the furs to drape around her for their walk. As she pondered her choices she glanced around the room and caught sight of her mother's cloak. She smiled and went over to grab the article, putting it on with an enthusiastic flourish. Then peered down at the rest of her attire. It was all in tatters, even her shoes which were worn down and slightly frozen, completely useless in their purpose of keeping the cold from her feet. Anna huffed and removed her shoes, testing her bare feet on the ice.

'Not too cold actually, that's curious'. The thought vanished quickly as she tidied her clothes as best as she could before carefully jogging through the hallways to meet back up with Elsa. It wouldn't do to keep Elsa waiting.

"So, are you ready? You will be helping me on my patrols today." Elsa asked when she saw Anna coming towards her.

Anna nodded, a smile forming on her face as Elsa opened the door.

"I was born ready."

The pain that accompanied the following seconds was something Anna was not expecting. The freezing cold air of the outside cutting through her clothes like knives.

"Ooooh, not ready! Not ready!" Anna clutched at her body as it instinctively shrunk in on itself.

The doors closed with an unnatural quickness at the sound of Anna's exclamation.

"Maybe I'll join you on your next patrol. Once I have warm enough clothes, which should not be long if Kristoff returns today."

"That will not be necessary. Come here."

Anna obeyed hesitantly. She stopped right in front of Elsa, sending her a curious look. Anna was about to ask what Elsa wanted when she felt Elsa's cool lips press against her forehead. The coolness spread through her like a wildfire until it engulfed her whole body. Then the sensation ceased and Elsa backed away from her and walked back towards the door.

"That should do for now. Let's go."

"Wait." Anna called after her, pressing a hand to her forehead at the slight tingling sensation that was left behind. "That is all that is needed, a peck to my forehead? I thought you needed to actually kiss me for your magic to work, on the lips…or elsewhere." She trailed off with a deep blush rising to her cheeks.

"Yes and no. Thus far I have needed strong, potent magic for what I have done with you. So I have needed more intimate contact to you. But keeping you immune to the cold is a simple feat and does not require strong magic. Though I do enjoy kissing you so I may have kissed you when it was not entirely necessary."

Anna could just barely make out the smirk on Elsa's face as she opened the doors once again. The cold seeming to pass right over her this time.

"I see." Anna responded as emotionless as possible as she walked past Elsa and out the doors. She'd sort through this new knowledge later, after their patrol was done. And maybe even ask Kristoff about it, he seemed to know a lot. But considering she knew nothing she wasn't sure how far "a lot" went.

Elsa hummed lightly in reply before following Anna out the doors and closing them behind her.

Entering the domain of North Mountain, Anna took a deep inhale of the crisp winter air. The smell of fresh pines was strong. Anna looked up for a moment as they walked to marvel at the sky, a cloudless blue expanse above her. A feeling of longing invaded her heart as she continued to look at it, she didn't think anyone could take the sky for granted, it was always there to see every day. But being able to walk under it and enjoy it in its entirety, she'd definitely taken that for granted. Just a few days in the ice palace with Elsa and Anna began to realize how well off she was.

She'd always been aware of her fortunate upbringing, and knew being royalty had many perks. Which she made sure she didn't use to belittle others as other nobles did. But on a basic level she took what she had for granted. Having servants who cared for her. Being able to walk through the gardens whenever she wanted. And always having food and drink, and never knowing true hunger.

How had everything changed in such little time?

A sigh escaped the redhead's chapped lips as she brought her attention back to the world around her; as she turned to locate Elsa she noticed the elemental was looking at her quizzically though she tried to hide it. Anna decided to ignore the look and keep walking, there was little point in starting a petty argument with Elsa on such a beautiful day.

They walked in a peaceful silence for a long time, neither wanting to break their apparent truce at the moment. Anna walked a few steps ahead of the taller woman peering over every once in a while to watch Elsa's movements. Unlike her own heavy footsteps that crunched with each step in the crisp snow, Elsa's foot falls were silent, her feet making the barest of indents in the snow before the train on her cloak wiped away the evidence that she'd ever been there. It almost seemed as if the snow carried her across it, and the poise in which Elsa stood as she walked made her look as if she was just gliding across the wintery surface. The princess marveled at the sight, mesmerized as she continued to watch Elsa as they walked along; in all her years of being a royal she'd never come anywhere close to the type of regality Elsa seemed to possess naturally, granted she'd also never paid much attention to those lessons.

Elsa seemed to notice the princess' gaze, but for her part, she kept walking on in silence, not clueing in Anna to the fact that she could feel her gaze.

"So what exactly do you do on these patrols?" Anna finally asked, breaking her focus from Elsa's movements.

"Nothing too grueling I suppose, I make sure no humans are roaming the forests or hunting. Then check on the animals that live here, if any are old or hurt I help them along.—"

"So you kill them is what you're saying."

"Yes."

"How can you call yourself a protector of these lands if you'd kill the creatures you exist to protect?"

Anna could once again feel her blood beginning to boil despite the cool air. Elsa's words bringing a surge of anger. How could the creatures of the forest be entrusted to her, if she'd so readily kill them? If there was one thing Anna remembered from a time when she still called her father "Papa", it was that royals were put in power to protect their people; the young, the sick, and the old. They were given power to protect others, and to use that power for anything other than protection, was akin to bringing shame to the royal name.

Elsa seemed a bit thrown off by the question, her brows knitting together closely as she took a moment to ponder Anna's question.

"Is it not merciful and just to help along an animal past its pain so that it can die quickly; it then can bring nourishment to the land and be of great use to the current generation that needs the fertile lands to survive? Any gravely injured or older animal is incapable of having offspring or ability to fulfill a purpose that will benefit the whole of the environment it lives in. At least in death it can provide food for the other animals, one way or another."

Anna licked her lips as she mulled over Elsa's words, kneeling and absentmindedly playing in the powdery snow.

"Why do you not take them in and heal them then? Instead of killing you could help the animals get better."

"It is not an elemental's place to intervene in the natural order of the habitat they protect. And there are always unforeseen consequences to actions. But a quick death is the least invasive thing I can do for the animals that live here."

"I never thought of it that way."

"Of course not, you were not taught to care for animals unless you were using them. Never put any thought into their lives before you killed. It's no different than myself, but in my case humans are the animals."

The princess stayed silent, unsure of how to react. Anna was angered that Elsa thought of people that way, people were important with feelings and memories and lives to live. But now that she thought about it, animals might have all those things too. A headache started to form as she continued to think about it.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Anna grunted as she turned her back to Elsa, moving the snow into the form she wanted it to take, "can we just stay here for a while, while I play in the snow?...I haven't played in the snow in a long time."

"I suppose that won't do any harm, we only have a bit more area to patrol before we head back, and we have quite a bit of time to do it in. You can have a half hour for your games."

The redhead hummed to herself as she began sifting the snow into different piles, her bare hands beginning to flush though the feeling of the bite of the snow was lost on her.

"Would you care to join me?" Anna turned to ask when she felt Elsa's presence hovering over her for a good couple of minutes, "I'm going to build a snowman."

"Another time perhaps. For now, I need to take care of a few things; do not wander off." Elsa turned on her heel and headed into the trees.

Anna frowned at the tone used, her mind analyzing over Elsa's every word, it reminded her of all the times her father had said the same thing, but "another time" never came. She doubted it would change with Elsa who had even less of a reason to indulge her than her father. And the reprimanding tone of her father still reverberated through her skull whenever she recalled the memory. Elsa's tone wasn't as deep and commanding as her father's, but it held the same warning; disobedience would not be tolerated.

Anna deflated when she was sure Elsa was out of sight, a heavy sigh leaving her lips as she returned to the snow with much less vigor. The snow's cold bite somehow seeming to register to her now though she didn't give it much thought.

"Wait, why should I care if she helps me make a snowman? It's not like I enjoy her company...especially since all she does is flirt and stare at me." The princess' words turning into a mumble at the end. "But any company is better than no company at all…I wish Kristoff was back."

Pursing her lips into a pout the princess began building her snowman, unskilled hands bringing the snow together in odd shapes. Irritation began to slowly creep into Anna's mind at the situation; here she was in the middle of the forest, in winter, with minimal clothes and her captor had left her unattended so she could play in the snow. Had actually left her one asset to what she wanted, by themselves with nothing but a warning to not go anywhere.

"Am I not even worth guarding to her, so little and insignificant that she can't be bothered to make sure I don't just run?" Anna huffed before standing up and kicking in her terrifyingly misshapen "snowman".

"And to think this day started out with so much promise."

Anna stood abruptly and began stomping off in the direction that Elsa had left in.

Everything around her was starting to look the same. Anna had been walking for what felt like hours, and by this point she was sure she was lost. Nothing stuck out as to where she had been and where she was going. No sign of Elsa anywhere, no sign of anything. The trees were too thick to see Elsa's ice palace. There were no noises she could hear, no animals scurrying along, no sight of birds. Nothing. And she was beginning to get worried.

"Ohhhhh, what have I done?" the redhead whined dragging her hands down her face as she peered around frantically, "Elsa is going to be furious…I should have stayed…should have listened. Who knows what Elsa is going to do to me…not that she can get too bad, she still needs me. Yet what if she can't find me, and who knows how long this magic will last. I'll die out here, cold and alone."

Anna stopped her hysteric pacing through the snow when she heard the faintest of sounds coming from the direction behind her. She held her breath and strained her ears in hope of hearing the sound again.

The forest was completely silent, no sound minus the imagined whispers of the snow that had begun to fall. Perplexed, but wary, Anna turned away and began falling back into her miniature panic when she heard the sound again. A bit louder this time. It's echo barely audible from its travel through the trees, yet Anna could recognize the sound. A human voice.

Desperate to find out the source of the voice, Anna reigned in her previous panic and focused on running in the direction the sound came from. The closer she came to the voice, or rather the echo of the voice, the stronger the wind around her became; the recently gentle snowfall picking up in speed and harshness. Within a few minutes the snowfall had turned into a concentrated blizzard, and Anna could feel the individual snowflakes cutting across her skin as she continued to run.

Finally, after running through the now knee deep snow, Anna reached the origins of the voice. A small man traveling through the woods, seemingly lost like her and yelling to the winds for help. Anna waved her hands frantically as she called to him and came up to approach him, raising her hands as she got closer to show she meant no harm. When the man caught sight of her he startled and fell back into the snow, yet still trying to crawl away.

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay," Anna cooed gently as she extended a hand out to the man, "you won't receive any harm from me…are you lost?"

The man eyed the extended hand warily before taking it and nodding in response to the strange redhead's question. When he stood he clutched his clothes tighter to himself in an attempt to protect himself from the battering wind and put some distance between himself and the girl.

Anna was off put by the reaction, a slight twang of hurt passing behind her eyes before she brushed it off and tried to steel her emotions. No one in the castle, or even the rest of Arendelle, had ever so blatantly shown their dislike, or discomfort, in being next to her. And she concluded it wasn't a good feeling to have. But she was also very confused by his reaction, she didn't have a very threatening appearance, and she had clearly shown him she didn't mean to harm him. What could cause him to be so undeniably wary of her very presence?

Either way, she'd figure that out later, right now her first priority was to get out of this sudden freak storm that seemed to have brewed seemingly out of nowhere. She gestured for the man to follow her so they could get out of the storm. He complied hesitantly, shuffling very slowly behind her, his body beginning to shake rather violently as he chattered.

"If we just keep walking in this direction we should be out of the storm soon," Anna yelled over the wind, "it seems you were right at the dead center of it." She hollowly laughed trying to lighten the mood, but the man just kept trudging along behind her keeping a safe distance between them.

The princess frowned deeply as she kept the lead, each time she looked at his over cautious reaction to her it wedged another burst of hurt through her, like she was getting stabbed in the back with small needle like daggers. The first human she'd seen in what felt like forever and he was scared out of his wits by her presence, too afraid to speak or even try to be civil and talk to her.

The princess was pulled from her thoughts when she noticed a clearing coming up, the weather surrounding the area calm with light snowfall. Anna ushered her companion on, noticing that his movements were becoming very sluggish, and his eyes beginning to droop. Realization hit her immediately and she rushed towards him, pulling her mother's cloak from her shoulders and wrapping it around his other layers. She urged him to stay awake and pulled him quickly towards the clearing, direct sunlight would at least help warm him up quicker. When they made it to the clearing she turned around and began rubbing his clothes in hope of giving him friction and extra warmth. He flinched and pulled back from her touch, resigning himself to doing it on his own, though his movements were barely quick enough to create heat from the action.

That proved to be the last straw for the princess.

"What did I ever do to you, hmmm?" She fumed, folding her arms haughtily over her chest, "Why are you afraid of me? And so willing to die instead of accepting my help."

The man shrunk at the outburst, lowering his eyes to the ground, but refused to speak.

"Answer me!"

"You're a w-w-witch, y-y-you mean to k-kill me." He chattered cowering more under the young woman's now stupefied expression.

"Where did you get a stupid idea like that?"

"You can't trick me with your words, witch. You survive, completely unfazed in the middle of a blizzard barefoot and in nothing but some shredded clothes and try to convince me you are not cursed in some way. I'm no fool."

The redhead was about to retort quickly, but realized the man was right. She indeed looked to be a bad omen, and the storm should have killed her; but it didn't. Elsa's magic was doing its work very well, and she slightly wondered how long the affects would last considering she'd been lost for some time now. But those questions and worries would have to wait for another time. Right now she had to deal with the situation in front of her.

"Don't you think if I was going to kill you I would've done it already; or better yet left you to die in the storm in the first place, hmmm?" She asked defiantly, hands perched on her hips.

The man stilled and mulled over the comment in his head. After a few moments of thought he huffed at losing the argument and let Anna help him.

"See I'm not so bad," Anna smiled as she rubbed the man's back since he couldn't reach it, "and if you don't mind me asking what are you doing up here, you should know, not staying on the path is treacherous? You're lucky I found you and not Elsa. Can't even imagine how that'd have gone, yeesh."

A small wistful smile came to the man's face as he listened to the young girl's excessive speech. He could see she was special in more ways than one, not many had high spirits these days, at least not anyone of the peasantry. It made him wonder just who she was. And her resistance to the freezing cold temperatures. A curious girl indeed.

She even came to help him despite the danger. Not that she could save him from it, even now. The storm was coming for him. He could feel in his bones that it would all be over soon, he was prepared for it, and accepted it. As if on cue to his thoughts the wind started picking up around them, gradually becoming more violent.

"What is that?" Anna questioned as she looked to the direction they had just come from. "Are you kidding me? The storm is following us."

She practically shrieked as she yanked the man up from the snow and started to look around frantically for any sort of direction they could go for safety. As she circled around to take in the area she realized where she stood. They were at of the edge of the clearing that marked the half-way point to Elsa's ice palace.

The princess took in a deep breath and weighed her options trying to think of the situation as any other strategy problem that her father had given her as a child.

She could run them to Arendelle. Which though seemed like the best option might be the worst considering that Elsa would think she'd run away and broken her deal. And Anna did not want to see the repercussions of that.

They could split here. Anna telling the man how to make it back to Arendelle and then she head back to the palace, since Elsa had probably figured out that she'd wandered off. Which she'd probably be punished for later. But looking at the man she doubted he could make it back on his own.

This left the last option. Most likely the most foolish plan of them all. But if she took them back to the ice palace they would be safe from the storm and she could make a fire to warm him up. Only down side, she'd have to somehow keep him hidden from Elsa, which would be fairly hard since she could sense people who made contact with the ice of her palace.

A sigh escaped her lips as she realized they were all pretty bad options. But then a revelation sparked through her mind. If she carried him in and set him down on her nest of furs he'd never make contact with the floor and could be easily hidden from Elsa since Elsa didn't seem to go to the library all that often. Minus when she knew Anna was in there.

With her mind made up as to what course of action she was going to take, she pulled the man after her, heading to the ice palace as fast as she could go. All the while, her thoughts were so jarred she didn't think to make any connections to the sudden, drastic weather shift.

The run through the trees was difficult, the ankle high snow was not the most savory thing they could have had to run through. Hidden twigs under the fresh snow caused both of them to stumble through the woods all the way back.

Plus throughout the run, Anna had to demand the man to keep going; urge him to keep fighting to stay alive, since he was convinced it was the end for him. And by the end of it, the princess had just opted to carry the small man on her back as best she could to keep him from purposefully ending his life by running straight into the snow storm, since he'd attempted to do that at least three times already.

When they arrived at the palace Anna was panting heavily with sweat dripping down her body despite the freezing cold temperatures outside. The sky was already beginning to darken and her body ached from the exertion. She leaned heavily against the front door as she let the palace know of her arrival, and she desperately hoped Elsa was still out looking for her so she could bring the man to the library without any incident. And as the door began to swing open at a very slow pace, practically making Anna's heart stop in anticipation as the suspense built, she desperately hoped Kristoff had arrived early and was now talking to Elsa or distracting her in some way.

All of her hopes were crushed when the door fully opened to reveal Elsa standing in the middle of the front hall with her signature impervious stone expression, and her arms folded tensely across her chest; the only indication to her anger.

"So you finally return." Elsa said harshly and began walking towards Anna, who tensed as she came closer. "And what do you have there?"

Elsa quirked an eyebrow at the disheveled redhead in front of her, the ragged breathes coming from Anna turning to fog in the air around them.

"N-nothing." Anna replied backing farther away from the elemental and making sure the man's face that was resting on her right shoulder stayed hidden from Elsa's sight and under her cloak.

After a few minutes of Anna's dodging her inspection, Elsa's anger finally reached its boiling point.

"Enough of this game." Though level, Elsa's command reverberated through the redhead's bones.

Before Anna could retort or make an excuse she found her hands being bound and pulled to the floor causing her to go with it. The man tumbling from his perch on her back to the ground beside her. She tried to give Elsa a pleading look from her hunched over position, but either Elsa didn't see it or she ignored it.

"You brought a human into my home."

"He was lost, about to freeze to death, caught in the middle of a storm, it kept following us. I was just going to let him sit by the fireplace in the library for a while and then send him to Arendelle when he was strong enough."

"The storm was following him because I conjured it to kill him, the storm is probably on its way now." A tired sigh escaped Elsa's lips as she looked down between the barely conscious man on the floor and Anna. The princess' eyes were wide, a mixture of hatred and horror fighting for dominance on her features.

"But why? He didn't do anything, he was just lost…he's no threat to you. Please, let him go."

"And if I let him go what kind of message does that send to the people in Arendelle? No, he," Elsa pointed at the man, glowering at him as if she was looking at filth in the streets, "goes back outside."

The elemental waved her hand creating two human sized ice golems that picked up the man and began dragging him towards the door. Elsa followed the golems out, mentally commanding them where to go. Anna remained bound to the ground listening to the man's leather boots as they scraped against the ice floor.

"Don't do this!" Anna screamed at the top of her lungs, struggling as hard as she could against her confinements, as Elsa exited the palace.

Sweat continued to flow from Anna's pores as she struggled, dripping down her forehead and into her eyes before its droplets eventually splashed against the ice floor. Her struggling became weaker as she felt the hard edges of her shackles cut into her wrists, but she didn't dare stop. The hard buffeting of ice against the large doors a reminder of what she was fighting for. Gradually she noticed the confinements losing their hold, and the area of ice under her small pool of sweat beginning to dissolve. The small victory spurring her further into action. Anna focused on slipping her wrists through her binding, letting her sweat lubricate her wrists to make it easier while turning her wrists to wipe the sweat into the ice to make is dissolve. After a few minutes of intense struggling and pulling she popped from the ice, her body being slightly thrown back from the force of it.

Anna staggered to her feet, her shoulders aching horribly, but she carried on none the less, running out to follow Elsa, and hopefully stop her before it was too late. It'd been some time since they left, but hopefully they hadn't gone far.

The storm was harsh, hail replacing the snowflakes that had been falling recently, but Anna blocked it all out. Keeping her eyes on the shallow trail of where the man's feet had dragged through the snow and focusing on putting one foot in front of the other as fast as she could.

She followed the trail until she saw a few figures in the distance, rushing the rest of the way until her lungs were burning in cold fire.

Elsa looked genuinely baffled when she saw Anna charging towards her through the storm. She stopped in her tracks, the snow around her calm despite the violent flurry outside her protective bubble, and waited to see what the redhead would do.

As Anna neared Elsa her features steeled into pure fury and she strained her muscles to the max to get to the elemental faster before tackling the regal woman into the snow with her full body weight. Anna grabbed the collar of Elsa's robe, her knuckles sheet white under her death grip and her hands shaking violently in her anger. She didn't say anything, her words failing her when she tried to articulate herself.

"That was unnecessary." Elsa replied coolly from her position under Anna.

The comment seemed to be the ignition to Anna's ability to talk.

"Where is he?" She growled, shaking Elsa as she spoke.

Elsa smirked from underneath Anna, a triumphant glint in her eyes. Before Anna could question why the older woman felt she was in a position to make such a gesture; Elsa had pulled her down to her level and roughly kissed her. Anna felt like something was being sucked out of her, and all at once the harsh cold began to register to her exposed flesh.

"It is none of your concern, princess." Elsa husked as she pulled away.

Caught off guard and heavily irritated by Elsa's actions the princess took in a deep breath to unleash her fury on the white haired women. But as she went to her screaming two cold arms looped under her and dragged her off the woman before throwing her backwards into the snow. She looked up to see Elsa's ice golems assuming a defensive position in front of her.

"I think now would be the perfect time for some stress relief, wouldn't you agree Anna? But maybe not here I doubt you can last long without my magic keeping you warm."

The fiery redhead scowled in response to the question, her eyes never leaving Elsa as the woman stood from the snow and started her walk back to the palace. When Elsa made it a few paces past Anna, Anna noticed the snow beside her begin to change and morph. She suppressed a gasp and watched as the powdery snow hardened into a lean blade. Confused and slightly curious, the freckled princess reached her hand out to inspect the blade, but as her fingers grazed the pleasantly cool hilt of the blade the two ice golems, that had previously been protecting Elsa snapped their attention to her and began charging.

The princess' instincts sparked before realization hit her; she grabbed the sword and used it to block the downward swing of the first golem's newly materialized sword. A smirk formed on her face when the realization finally caught up with her. If these golems were here for stress relief, Anna was going to take full advantage of that. She was just glad they didn't seem to have consciousness or she might feel bad for what she was about to do. She just hoped her body could keep up with her anger. The harsh bite of the cold dulled her movements but she did appreciate the distracting pain.

—

A half hour later Elsa found herself sitting in a self-made thrown outside the ice palace watching Anna. The princess was still vigorously unleashing her fury on the multitude of snow golems surrounding her. Sweat now glistened thoroughly over the young woman's skin, her clothes perfectly disheveled, and the fiery glint that Elsa had missed was blazing in her teal orbs. All together Elsa figured she ought to make Anna mad more often, especially if this was the result. And she was surprised that Anna was still standing having expected that she's have to carry Anna's cold unconscious form back into the palace.

As an added bonus, tonight would prove to be very enjoyable if the princess' mood kept up. A smirk came to the elemental's face at the thought. Elsa's musings were interrupted when she felt a presence approach behind her.

"How was the trip Kristoff?" She did not face him as she spoke, keeping her eyes trained on Anna, but she knew he heard her.

"It was fine, I took the liberty of putting the winter clothes in Anna's room. And I also visited the trolls on the way back and asked about your…situation. Seeing as no one has gotten as far as Princess Anna I thought the trolls might have some advice for proceeding from here."

"And?"

"Well, from the looks of how Anna is adjusting to you, you are not going to like the information I have to offer." He rubbed the nape of his neck before taking a step into Elsa's line of vision, effectively blocking her view of Anna.

She gave the man a quick hard look before she settled into impassivity and waited for him to speak.

"Turns out you can't impregnate Anna until she wants you to. As in she has to love you enough to want to bear your child for the magic to work." A hollow laugh left Kristoff's lips as he slowly watched Elsa's impassive expression turn into one of confusion and anger.

"I do not understand, my father never needed such a ridiculous thing as love in order to have me. Why do I need it?"

"Grand Paddie says it's because you are a female elemental; male elementals don't have to rely on magic to pass on their genes so they don't need love. This is obviously not the case with you. You shouldn't be too surprised though, you know magic always comes with a price."

"Obviously." Elsa deadpanned, a frown was now cemented into her features as she watched Anna. The light snowfall around began picking up into a light flurry.

"There's more, it's not important information for your situation right now so if you don't want to hear it I won't say anything."

"No, it's fine, continue." Elsa willed herself to calm and reign in the flurry back to a light snow.

"Your magic works in a way to test those who you use it on…i.e.—"

"The woman who survived my magic initially could have been able to carry my child. Could have loved me." The elemental stared off at nothing in particular as her words sunk in a realization hit her.

Kristoff nodded to confirm her conclusion, though he gained no pleasure in delivering the news. Especially in the way it seemed to affect the pale woman, who now seemed paler than the snow she created. He saw her trying to hide her hurt, and to many it would have been completely masked, but the burly blond had known Elsa for years, and he could see the sheer emptiness in her eyes that he assumed echoed through her heart.

"Do not tell Anna of this, I cannot predict how she will react to this information. And I'll need your help, apparently Anna has it in her capability to love me; I will not be letting her go." She sent him a threatening glare, daring him to go against her wishes.

He chuckled at the stare, quirking a challenging brow at the shorter woman.

"You know better than to threaten me, Els. With my nullification spell you can't touch me."

The use of the old nickname and the fact that he was right got a growl out of Elsa. She hated the nickname and he knew it; he only used it when he wanted to get a rise out of her. Along with reminding her she had no leverage to use as control over him.

"I'll be heading up to my room, it's starting to get late. We can talk about a plan to 'woo' Anna tomorrow. And in your case the plan is definitely going to be intensive."

"And also get Anna out of the snow, the only reason she's standing right now is out of pure spite. Keep her out here much longer and she might actually die."

Kristoff gave Elsa a light pat to the shoulder before turning and walking back to the ice palace. Leaving Elsa to her thoughts, and to deal with the feisty princess.

—

Anna was panting heavily, sweat leaking down her face and threatening to drip into her eyes, but she kept her stance, ready to take on the next ice golem that dared to attack her. She smirked as the memories of the past half hour ran through her mind. During said time period she was proud to know that she'd "killed" 73 of Elsa's ice golems. And all throughout that time she could feel Elsa's gaze on her, hopefully she saw and understood just how formidable the heir of Arendelle could be.

The next attack never came though, as the ice golem prepared for its attack is dissipated, the other four golems dissolving back into snow powder shortly after the first, as did Anna's sword.

"Have you relieved enough stress by now?" she heard Elsa's voice coming from a few feet behind her.

"I suppose I have, mostly anger though." Anna replied calmly, adjusting her tattered clothes to be as presentable as possible.

In all honesty the princess had begun to consider forgiving the elemental. There was the one part of her that would never truly forgive the cold woman for everything she'd done, or the lives she'd taken over the years. But another part of her, a part that was beginning to grow louder and louder in her thoughts wanted to understand why Elsa did what she did. Anna was starting to comprehend that Elsa lived outside of human laws, and didn't understand human niceties and customs. She was more intrigued by the woman than angered, and had the unquenchable urge to figure out everything she could about the elemental.

"Elsa, can I suggest something? For tonight I mean." Anna asked as they turned and began their walk back to the palace. She could feel her stomach constricting on itself now that her adrenalin was leaving her system.

Elsa just inclined her head towards the princess to indicate that she was listening.

"Can we have sex quick before dinner? I don't want to cook twice, and I have a feeling I'll be really hungry afterward." A slight chuckle came from the princess as she rubbed her rumbling stomach.

Elsa bristled at the mention of sex, her vision hazing for a millisecond before she settled into a stone cold expression.

"There will be no sex tonight, and as for dinner you can eat by yourself. I have to take care of some things tonight."

Anna flinched internally at Elsa's hard tone. She'd never heard Elsa sound so…so, she didn't even know how to describe it, but it greatly unnerved her. But she couldn't let the elemental's words have such an effect on her. So she squared her shoulders and faced the woman.

"But we made a deal, I don't want to break my end. You said we'd have sex every night until I become pregnant. What changed your mind?" The redhead hated that her voice came out as defensive and slightly hurt. And she hoped beyond everything else that Elsa didn't notice the words that she'd left unspoken. Was she not good enough? Even if she felt that way, she wished she could mask it better.

"I do not have to tell you anything, I do not wish to sleep with you, and that is all there is to it. Now please, if you will excuse me."

"Yes you do, if it concerns me, I would like to know what I have done for you to become so frigid towards me. Is it because I disobeyed you today? Give me a reason."

"I do not want to be in your presence at this moment," Elsa huffed, yet remained regal as she walked through the halls, Anna close behind her, "now if you will excuse me I have somewhere to be."

Elsa stalked off down the hall using her ice to seal the corridor so Anna couldn't get through. Leaving the princess hurt and deflated standing in the middle of the hallway.

"What did I ever do to you?!"Anna shouted after her, her voice echoing off the walls, "You cannot just leave me here with nothing to do."

When it was clear Elsa wouldn't respond to her Anna groaned aloud before turning around and heading to the library. Her barely audible ramblings trailing behind her.

"I must have done something wrong besides the obvious. Nothing I have done before this has made her this mad…Or maybe she's just tired of my presence…no she needs me, so she can have her child…unless dealing with me is not worth it and she's just using me as leverage now against Arendelle. Maybe I will never make it home, and I will be stuck with her glowering at me with those damn cold eyes for the rest of my life…No, think positive Anna, maybe she is just tired. But what kind of elemental gets tired. Does she even sleep?"

Tears began to pinprick at the corner of her eyes as she made it to the library. The fire had long since died out leaving the area as cold as the rest of the castle, if not colder with its dark atmosphere.

The princess exhaled heavily, she did not want to deal with relighting the fire, or do anything other than curl up in bed and hopefully wake up back in her bed in Arendelle. Anna knew it wouldn't happen, but it wouldn't hurt to dream.

She turned around and started heading for her room, her bare feet sliding across the ice and she slumped through the hallways, her physical fatigue hitting her greatly. As she entered the hallway leading to her room she noticed the door she failed to open this morning was slightly ajar. Her curiosity giving her a small boost of energy. Anna shuffled towards the door keeping her steps as quiet as possible as she peeked through the cracked door.

The first thing Anna saw of the inside of the room was its furnishings; wooden cabinets and dressers that casted a warm home-y feel to the room. But her eyes were drawn to the impressive oak carved bed, the sheets and blankets covering it seemed to be made of the finest fabrics. All in all, a room befit of royalty. And laying on said bed was none other than Kristoff, the man sprawled out as much as possible breathing easy as if there was not a worry in the world.

Anna stayed silent for a while, contemplating whether or not to intrude on him. He looked about ready to sleep, it'd probably be a bad time to chat. She was about to turn away and walk the few steps to her own room when she saw the most peculiar thing. And possibly the most horrifying, as Kristoff sat on his bed, a guitar resting on his stomach, he started picking his nose…then ate it.

The princess nearly gagged, a choked sound escaping her throat, alerting the man inside of her presence.

He sat up straight, a sheepish blush coming to his face at being caught. And after taking a few moments to compose himself, he invited her in.

"What brings you to my humble abode?" He chuckled and made a grand gesture of his arms.

"Curiosity, where did you get all this furniture from?"

"The storage area of course, there's all kinds of things you can find down there, if you're willing to take the time to look."

Anna furrowed her brow at the tone the burly blond man used, sensing there was a hidden meaning under the surface of his words. She filed away the thought for a later time to think about, but she was too tired to think about it now.

"If you want, since I'm going to be here for a while…helping Elsa, we could get you some furniture of your own. It'll be more comfortable and might even warm up your room a bit. If not, that's cool too."

"I would love that actually, thank you for offering…it is nice to have you back, you are a lot easier to talk to than Elsa." Anna gave Kristoff a small smile before it turned into a yawn; he smiled at the action.

"You should go to bed, and we can eat in the morning, I'll cook."

The princess' smile returned at the mention of food and was quickly turning into a wide grin. She nodded in agreement and headed back into the darkening halls, closing the door behind her. It seemed that sleep would be winning out over food tonight.

Anna let out a content sigh before walking to her room, her thoughts revolving around the possibility of having a new person in the palace. Someone normal she could talk to, even if he did eat his boogers and smelled slightly funny.

As she entered her room, she had to do a double take down the hall. She could have sworn she'd seen Elsa down the hall, sending her a look of anger and…hurt, maybe. She wasn't sure. But when Anna checked the hall again no one was there. The princess shrugged it off, assuming her mind was playing tricks on her from lack of sleep and hunger.

* * *

**Captain Cook Answers:**

So in general a few people have asked whether this fanfic will be slowburn or if love is even going to happen. Which this chapter should clear up one of the questions. But I'm not sure whether it will be slow burn or not. It most likely will be, or maybe a medium burn, but with the situation they are in love isn't something that can naturally come quickly. This story was originally supposed to be around maybe 15 chapters but that was because of many time skips used and so on. As you can see we are on chapter 8 and have barely scratched the surface. So in all honesty I don't know how this fic will go. I'm along for the ride just like everyone else.


	9. To be Human (Part 1)

**Author's Note: **Hello! Hope the year is treating you well and that you're getting pumped for Valentine's Day. Whether you have a significant other or not you can still make it a great day (plus cheap candy on the 15th). Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I switched up the story summary to check that out as well, it should answer a lot of questions that you guys have been asking. But I'll let you know here, this is considered slow burn and elsanna will be absolute endgame. More than endgame really that's how endgame it is.

Also I don't know if any of you saw but A Formal Arrangement had an update recently. I haven't read it yet because I was using it as incentive to finishing this chapter up. But it's an amazing story if you haven't read it yet. Love Capn' Cooks :)

* * *

The first thing Anna felt when she woke up the next morning was the bitter cold. Her teeth were chattering violently and her jaw was getting sore from the action. She looked down to find that her blankets had been kicked off some time in the night and she internally cursed her body for doing so.

Anna got out of her bed quickly trying to make her way to grab the cloak on the chair that she knew would give her all the warmth she needed, but she slipped on the ice floor in her haste. She recovered quickly, her curses coming out incoherent with how bad the chattering of her teeth had become, and grabbed the cloak. She clung to the fur and its warmth, a content sigh escaping her lips as she walked back to her bed and sat above the covers.

Taking the time to look at the shades of blue that illuminated the walls, Anna figured it was still very early in the morning, the deep dark blues of the walls telling her the sun had yet to come out. She shook her head in exasperation, she'd only been up for five minutes and already this. She feared what might some with the rest of the day. And now that she had the time to process what just happened she wondered why she felt cold in the first place. She was out in a snowstorm just yesterday with these same torn clothes and hadn't feel anything at all.

The pain of her gut clenching broke her thoughts and Anna was forced to remember that she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning. She got up slowly clawing at her pained stomach as she shuffled to her door. A hiss escaped her mouth as the cold ice floor burned into the soles of her bare feet, but she didn't have the time to let it stop her.

To think hunger alone could cause this much pain to the body. It felt like death himself was escorting her through the hallways as she hunched over and struggled to make it over to Kristoff's room. Anna made a mental note to herself that when she ruled Arendelle she would see to it that the citizens had enough to eat because if she was in this much pain right now she couldn't even imagine how her less fortunate citizens felt when they hadn't eaten in days at a time.

"Kristoff!" Anna's fist collided with Kristoff's door. "Please be up, I really need you right now."

After a few seconds the door dissolved, and a frazzled Kristoff looked down hazily at the crunched over Princess.

"Hey, Anna, are you alright? What time is it?"

"Really early, sorry about that." The princess gave an apologetic smile and readjusted her cloak. "But I need food immediately and I don't think I can make it in the state I'm in."

The large blond took in her form and gave a quick nod before scooping her up in his arms.

"What are you doing?" Anna squirmed in his grasp, but he held her firmly.

"From the looks of it you are in no condition to walk around the palace, right now you need to conserve as much energy as possible…so stop squirming. I'll make a fire for you in the library and bring you your warmer clothes while I fix up breakfast."

Anna stilled her movements and nodded. She definitely wasn't a fan of being carried by people, but she supposed it wouldn't hurt in this particular situation.

Kristoff deposited her in her nest of blankets that had been left out from the day prior and started a fire before leaving. He came back a few minutes later with warm clothes and told her to not move as much as possible and that he would come grab her when breakfast was finished. She nodded in appreciation as he left. Once Kristoff had left the redhead peered around cautiously before taking off her clothes and switching them out for the ones Kristoff brought. Anna figured no one would be coming in especially since the burly blond had just left and her captor had recently become not too pleased with her presence.

The new set of clothes were at least three times thicker than her previous ones, which didn't say much, but Anna was very pleased nonetheless. They didn't have the same prestigious look that her royal attire had had, but they would do, it wasn't as if she needed to please anyone here anyway. After she was clothed she bent down to the ice floor and rubbed at it until her reflection stared back at her. This look would suit her, definitely more so than the ripped, thin attire that made her look like a shipwreck survivor. And though the boots that Kristoff had returned with were a bit too large, an extra set of socks or two could easily fix the problem. After a few more seconds of taking in her reflection she turned and nestled back into her blankets by the fire.

She turned her attention back to the books that were acting as a barrier between her nest and the rest of the library. Anna skimmed her fingers along the spines of the journals as she recalled where she'd left off. Her hand stilled on a rather beaten leather journal. She extracted it and flipped to the first page to see who it belonged to. But unlike the other journals this one had no written owner.

_Fifth Winter_

_Arendelle is indeed prosperous. And outside invasions seem all but impossible with the elemental guarding the lands of North Mountain. But there is a matter that concerns me greatly. My first daughter, Elsa. She is promised to Arenius, to become the elemental protector of North Mountain after he passes and already I can see her slowly slipping away from humanity. I had initially thought that she would grow up human and then become an elemental once she left to North Mountain. But she is unusually stoic, especially for her age. And she seems all together unaffected by the sheer bitterness of the cold. When she goes out to the courtyard to play in the snow she wears her summer clothes, and this fact frightens my queen greatly. I try to reassure her that everything is fine, but she refuses to believe. And as the weeks have stretched on I am seeing something in the Queen's eyes that I do not like. A bitterness whenever she sees Elsa playing in the snow. But I swear I will protect her and love her enough for the both of us until the day she leaves. And maybe even after she leaves…_

The sound of the library door creaking open had Anna tearing her eyes away from the words in front of her.

"Oh, Kristoff, is breakfast read—" Anna's words got stuck in her throat when it was not Kristoff who entered. "E-Elsa, what are you doing here?"

"I thought it odd that I felt Kristoff's presence in the library, only to quickly leave right after entering. So I come to investigate only to find you in your nest without me sensing you here…what are you doing in here?"

"Nothing in particular. I wanted to continue reading where I left off."

Elsa's eyes narrowed at the evasive answer.

"That. Is. Not what I meant when I asked what you were doing here. How did you get in here without me noticing."

"I had Kristoff carry me in." Anna answered as she played with her fingers and turned from Elsa's gaze.

Elsa raised a brow to prompt Anna to continue. After a few moments of Anna pointedly avoiding Elsa's gaze the elemental's patience with the princess was on thin ice.

"Speak!" Elsa crossed her arms over her chest, irritation clear in her tone. "Why did you have Kristoff carry you into the library?"

"Because I needed him to. I am unable to walk on my own right now…"

"I am having difficulty believing that. You were fine yesterday when you tackled me and ran through a blizzard." Anna bristled at the smirk the accompanied Elsa's words, as if yesterday was filled with fond memories.

"I am sorry to inform you that that is what happens when you go without eating for a whole day and have prolonged exposure to the bitter cold with no reprieve." Elsa didn't miss the bitterness in Anna's tone or the clench in her jaw as she spoke the words.

"You still should have come to me rather than Kristoff, especially if you were cold." Elsa replied haughtily.

"Why would I come to you? You do not even bother to try and act like you care, and my presence seems to offend you anyway."

Anna waited on bated breath when she saw Elsa tense and take in a gulp of air to reply. The blonde looked ready to explode, or at least as much of an explosion as Elsa could express, there was only a visible twitch in her facial features. But as soon as the emotion came it calmed and then froze over back to the frigid expression Elsa always wore. A deep sense of disappointment washed through Anna then. She was so close to seeing Elsa lose her temper, so close to seeing her act human.

Elsa turned and left the library, her bare feet padding on the ice floor. The sound being the only indication of the elemental's irritation.

Anna huffed and went back to her book nest. She didn't have the energy to analyze Elsa's actions right now. She began to flip through miscellaneous journals in her stack, trying to find a continuation of the passage she was previously reading. After going through ten other journals, none of them even belonging to the first king, Anna grew frustrated. To think she was surrounded in a pile of books that held the answers to her kingdom's history, yet she felt more confused now than ever.

'There is one book that would have answers.' Anna glanced over at the almost barren shelf that she had grabbed most of the journals from.

Anna pushed herself up from the ground and wobbled her way over to the shelf. Her eyes caught the thin, worn leather that encased Elsa's journal.

"All the answers may lie in here. If anyone knew what happened it would be Elsa." Lithe fingers brushed the cover as Anna contemplated what to do. "Why is opening this journal so difficult? Elsa refuses to respect me and my privacy, why must I care about hers?"

"I deserve answers." Anna gripped the cover and opened the journal, she traced over the calligraphy of Elsa's name with her finger. Then opened to the first journal entry.

_Seventh Summer_

"Hey, Anna! The food is officially served." Kristoff's bellowing voice echoed off the walls as the library doors swung open. "Hope you're hungry."

Anna heard the slight chuckle that followed his words as dread filled her. She snapped the book closed and put it back on the shelf before facing Kristoff.

"Oh, hello Kristo—" Anna choked on her words when her eyes caught sight of the food tray Kristoff was holding, "woah, that looks magnificent."

"I'm glad it looks appealing to you." A wide grin formed on the burly man's face. "I tried my best to make it up to the standards that you're probably used to. I hope I don't disappoint."

"With how hungry I am you could have brought up the frozen food from storage and I would be ecstatic still." Anna walked towards Kristoff and then paused. "Hmmm, where would you like to sit and eat. Eating in my little nest will get messy most likely, and the chess table is fairly small."

"Here, check this out." Kristoff paused and looked around not seeming to find what he was looking for. "Hey, Anna. Would you mind holding the tray for a second?"

Anna nodded once and took the proffered tray. She stepped back from Kristoff and eyed him curiously. Kristoff rolled up his sleeves and shook his hands out before pressing his palms to the floor. There was a pregnant pause as a look of concentration formed on the man's face. Within the next following seconds ice formed under his palms and he raised them slowly as the ice built until it came to form a sizable table with two chairs.

"So how's that?" Kristoff beamed at the shocked princess. "Pretty impressive right."

Anna struggled to not drop the tray in her hands. "How did you do that? You have ice magic…I am very much confused right now."Kristoff took the tray from Anna's hands and set it on the table then gestured for her to join him at the table. The princess didn't budge and just stared at Kristoff like he'd grown an extra head.

"If you join me then I will answer all of your questions. But you need food before you need answers."

Anna complied cautiously.

They sat in silence for a long while as they ate. To Anna's delight the food was just as delicious as it looked. The meat was perfectly tender and juicy despite being frozen solid not a few hours previously. The bread was sweetened, by what Anna wasn't sure, but it tasted amazing. Anna had to take her time to not scoff it down in her hunger.

Anna peered across the table when she was sure Kristoff was preoccupied with eating. There was so much that she didn't know about the blonde man, he was just as much a mystery to her as Elsa at this point, if not more so. But she was sure he was more likely to answer questions than the elemental.

"So what do you want to know?" Kristoff asked after he had finished eating and had brushed the crumbs from his face with his sleeve.

"Honestly, everything. Though I do not know what I want to know first…but I suppose asking about your ice powers is at the top of the list right now."

Kristoff nodded and folded his hands on the table. "Fair enough. Well, I can conjure ice, only a small amount though, I'm nowhere near Elsa's level.

"How do you have powers though? You are a human, like me…right?"

"I am human. I wasn't born with these powers. They were actually given to me by the trolls to help Elsa out with her powers when her father passed away. He wasn't able to finish her training before he died so the trolls sent me to help Elsa control her powers."

"Trolls?" Anna leaned back in her chair, palm to her forehead as she let the information sink in. He definitely wasn't lying, but she was certainly having a hard time believing everything. Kristoff had been with Elsa since the beginning. 'Wait' Anna's mind stalled. "Wait…Elsa said she has been the protector of North Mountain for over three hundred years or so. There is no way you could have been there if you are human. That would make you over three hundred years old, or older."

Kristoff chuckled. "Yep, looking pretty good for three hundred and fifty something, eh? I'm actually older than Elsa. The trolls blessed me with immortality linked to Elsa so I would be able to help guide her and keep her company until she dies."

"This is becoming more and more unbelievable…and why are you so forthcoming with this information?"

Kristoff shrugged and leaned back in his chair, "I see no reason for you to not know. You live here and are essentially Elsa's consort, you deserve to know if you're going to be with her."

"I am definitely not going to be 'with her' that I know for sure," Anna scoffed. "And right now she does not wish to be with me either. I seem to have unknowingly offended her, though I honestly do not know what I've done." Her brow furrowed as she thought of the situation with Elsa and she bit her lip as she became lost in thought. "Not that I care, of course. What Elsa thinks of me does not matter, only that I have her child so I can go back home."

"I'm sure she isn't angry with you…she is just extremely bad at interacting with people and her intentions are usually misinterpreted. Give her some time, she'll warm up to you." An encouraging smile came to his features.

"Well, I do not particularly wish to warm up to her. Not with the way she treats me. While I am used to being completely disregarded at the castle…" Anna trailed off and gazed back to the fire. 'It hurts much more when I am disregarded by Elsa.'

Anna could feel Kristoff's eyes on her as he seemed to analyze her features. The gaze made her extremely uncomfortable, she was sure that Kristoff could figure what he wanted to know if he gazed at her for long enough. And she was not willing to share her feelings with him, not now with knowing of his past. Anna couldn't get the feeling of betrayal out of the pit of her stomach. Kristoff hadn't betrayed her, she knew that, but the connection she had felt to him had been severed. And that loss of connection felt like betrayal, a harsh reminder of just how alone she was here.

"Do you know where I can find Elsa?" Anna asked as she rose from the table, "Now that I am no longer starving and in pain I want to train."

"I'm sure if you walk around long enough she'll come to you." Kristoff shrugged and gathered the dirty plates from the table. "Just be careful it's pretty cold outside today."

Anna nodded in reply and headed for the door. "Thank you for the meal. And the information." She said over her shoulder and left the library.

Anna wandered the halls for a long while though there was no sign of Elsa anywhere.

"If I was an elemental where would I go?" Anna mused aloud as she climbed the stairs, "I could always check her room, which is where I should have started my search logically."

Anna huffed as she took the stairs two at a time and entered the corridor that held everyone's rooms. "Elsa, are you up here?" The voice echoed off the gleaming blue walls. The princess scanned the hall for any glimpse of movement, but none seemed to appear. Anna frowned and turned around to head to another floor.

"What is it that you need, princess?" Elsa's voice washed over the princess and Anna turned around immediately.

"Elsa!" Anna caught sight of her room door resolving back into thick ice from where Elsa appeared from, but decided to not question it. "I was hoping to train outside, so can you make some ice golems for me?"

"Are you alright to be going outside, you said you were unwell earlier?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm feeling much better, I just needed food is all. So, may I train?" Anna replied flexing her muscles as a display of health.

"Alright, if you say you are well I will trust your judgement." Elsa's hands glowed as she conjured an ice sword identical to the one Anna had fought with the previous day. She handed the sword to Anna, "Ice golems will appear once you step upon the snow outside the front gate, so be prepared."

Anna nodded as she turned and headed towards the staircase with the sword in hand. She paused as Kristoff's words resonated through her mind then turned and walked back to Elsa. Anna rose to her tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to Elsa's lips, only pulling away when Elsa tried to deepen it. To her dismay she didn't feel any different. The princess' brow furrowed, she was sure she was supposed to feel Elsa's magic course through her, like a chill up her spine.

"You look confused." Elsa studied her for a minute, but didn't seem to know what to make of the situation.

"I was sure that you said your magic came from intimate action…Kristoff said it would be colder than usual today, so I thought if I kissed you then I would have the spell that repels the cold…"

The redheaded princess stood perplexed as she gazed at the ground when she heard a light musical chuckle fill the air. She looked up only to find Elsa hiding a laugh behind her hand.

"Why is that funny to you? It's sound logic." Anna puffed up.

"You seem to forget that my magic works according to my will. Therefore I have to consciously be the one to put the spell on you. But I did enjoy the kiss nonetheless."

Anna felt the heat rising to her cheeks at the comment and turned to leave before she could embarrass herself any further.

"Wait, come back," Elsa called after Anna swallowing down her laugh, "now that I know what you want…"

Anna huffed and turned back around. She stood and waited for the kiss which Elsa happily obliged to. Elsa kept the kiss slow and sensual and only after a few moments did she pour her magic into the action.

The princess felt the familiar cold tingle in her spine before the cold temperature of the hallway melted away into nothingness. She sighed as she pulled away from Elsa opening her eyes that had fluttered closed.

"Now, off with you." Elsa jested as she nudged Anna.

Anna complied still half in a daze from the kiss, which worried her greatly. The walk through the palace went by in a blur as her thoughts swirled. Every time she spoke to Elsa the woman became more of an enigma to her. First she was hostile, then flirty, then extremely seductive and sexual. Anna felt her cheeks warm at the memories of Elsa on the nights they had sex. But then a frown formed when she remembered the way Elsa acted after that. She'd been completely distant after the disaster yesterday. Anna thought back to yesterday when she fought against the snow golems with Elsa watching. 'Wait' Thinking back Elsa had been her with a hunger in her eye that had nothing to do with food. Elsa wasn't angry or distant then.

'What changed in that small span of time to make Elsa so distant?'

The princess entered the main hall headed towards the doors. She pried into her memories as much as she could trying to remember what was happening around her as she was fighting. The memory hit her as the intricate doors of the ice palace swung open.

"Kristoff" the words came out as a puff cloud as her hot breath came into contact with the cold air outside. Her body halted before it could disturb the fresh snowfall that lay outside. 'What could he have said to Elsa to make her distance herself so quickly?' different scenarios played in Anna's mind, none of them good. Overthinking the situation she was in would do her no good right now. But fighting might help her clear her mind and come up with a plan of action.

Anna took a deep breath and took the final step out of the ice palace. The doors to the ice palace closed behind her shortly after.

The second Anna's boot disturbed the powdered snow three ice golems formed and immediately charged at Anna. She rolled past them not wanting to be trapped against a wall and took a defensive stance. From what she remembered last time the golems tended to attack one at a time their numbers mostly for intimidation. She eyed each of them wondering which would strike first, it was hard to tell, and lacking flesh and bone the golems didn't have muscle twitches or signs that gave their movement away.

The golem on the right moved in first, it charged quickly with its sword held high to strike. Anna easily sliced across its abdomen, as the area was left unprotected, it burst into snow that settled back onto the ground. 'That was incredibly sloppy form, I remember them being better tha…' the thought was cut off when Anna quickly parried a clean strike aimed directly at the soft area of her stomach. An ice golem had quickly followed behind the first, the burst of snow from its death had acted to conceal its charge. As she battled the golem in front of her, its form and movement vastly more skilled than the first, Anna saw a new golem form from the snow.

A quick slice to the leg and stab to the chess took out the next golem. She spent no time waiting for the next one to attack and went on the offensive, her blade sinking into the second ice golem before it had time to register what was happening. Two more golems formed to replace the fallen.

Anna fell into a rhythm of fighting after a while, the ice golems seeming to attack in only a few different pattern. It was a fairly good workout Anna could admit even if a tad dull, the monotonous motions of her blade work becoming a lull that pushed her thoughts to the forefront of her mind.

'What could Kristoff have possibly said to Elsa to make her push me away so completely?' The need for an answer was weighing down on Anna. 'Well, after this morning Elsa does not seem as distant as I thought, perhaps she isn't angry with me.'

Anna huffed as she blocked a downwards swipe from a golem. "Though this leaves the question as to what would make her distance herself from me." She spoke under her breath as she continued to fight.

A flicker of panic ran down Anna's spine when she noticed that the golems were now attacking in a pattern they hadn't been before. Two were actively attacking while the third began to circle the fight. That set off ringers, it had to be looking for an opening. She wondered what had caused them to switch up formation, though she admitted they were fighting differently than the previous day. Perhaps they adapted to her in their fighting styles. Anna didn't have time to think about the possibilities when she blocked two attacks at the same time, the golems pushing their weight into it as Anna resisted. Soon they had forced her on her knees into the snow. She couldn't maneuver around it, if she rolled from it either way the other sword was likely to strike her.

"Aaugh!" Anna felt the burn of the ice on her thigh before she felt anything else. She rolled away instinctually taking one of the ice blades to the shoulder.

She could feel blood trickling down her leg from where the third golem had sliced into her thigh. The wound was fairly deep, not fatal in itself but the amount of blood flowing down her leg was making her feel uneasy. Thankfully her shoulder had only been grazed, it stung but it wouldn't hinder her movements. Which she realized she'd need when she noticed the golems were heading towards her to attack again.

"Stop!"

Anna parried two blows and sliced one golem across its side. Only two left for now. Her knees buckled when she tried to stand, her thigh not cooperating with her will. A few spots of red snow dotted the area around her.

"Halt!" Her tone more pleading but firm nonetheless.

The golem showed no sign of recognition to the words and positioned its attack at fatal areas on Anna's body. Anna knocked the blade from its hand from her kneeled position and stabbed it through the heart. She panted heavily ignoring the black the seemed to dance at the edges of her vision. This had to end soon.

Two more golems formed to replenish their numbers but Anna was having trouble keeping track of them. She wished they would cease their attacks and didn't understand why they hadn't. They were there to help her train not kill her. Though Anna didn't feel so sure at this point.

Two golems charged her, one from the front the other from the back. Anna's sword was held weakly in her hands. Her consciousness was leaving her and her body felt weak, registering a different kind of coldness that had nothing to do with the snow around her.

"Elsaaaa!"

Anna attempted to block the blow from the golem running straight towards her, but her world went to black before she could counter its attack. The last thing she registered was the searing pain of a blade making contact with her cheek and the sound of her blade as it was knocked from her hands.

* * *

**A/N: **I'll probably edit this chapter within the next few days after me beta goes through it. But she's been busy and I wanted to update the chapter as soon as possible so sorry for any mistakes.


	10. To be Human (Part 2) excerpt

**Author's Note: **Hello everyone so I know it's been far too long. I kinda just lost the will to write for a long time and I'm just now getting it back. So I've just started writing the next chapter and I wanted to post what I have to show that I haven't given up on this story.

This is what I have so far. So it might change or be different in the final version of the chapter. But anyway here ya go, sorry to have ended on a cliffhanger, but Anna is alright.

* * *

The first thing Anna registered as her consciousness returned was the volume of Kristoff's voice, though she usually found his voice soothing it didn't sound so soothing at the moment.

"How could you let this happen?!" Kristoff's tone was venomous and Anna desperately hoped that the words were not aimed at her. "Anna could've bled out in the snow and died, you're lucky I found her when I did."

"I guess I had too much faith in her abilities…I will make sure that does not happen again."

Anna winced at the comment, alerting the others that she was awake.

"How are you feeling?" Elsa asked as she approached Anna's side cautiously.

"Fine," Anna tried to look it, but failed, "I feel a bit lightheaded actually."

"That's to be expected, you lost a lot of blood, Anna." Kristoff interjected even though Elsa looked like she wanted to respond. "You should get some rest for now."

Anna waved off the concern, she couldn't have Elsa thinking of her as weak. Or at least weaker than Elsa already thought she was. Anna bit her bottom lit as the thought passed through her mind. _I'm going to have to amend that somehow. _

"Could you just get me some food please, red meat preferably? I think that will help me the most right now." Anna sent Kristoff a pleading look, to which he nodded and headed out the door. But not before hesitating at the door and sending a worried glance in Elsa's direction.

Once he had left Anna turned to Elsa. She noticed that Elsa didn't look as smug as usual, and though that should have been a good thing it concerned her greatly.

"I am glad to see you are relatively unharmed." Elsa spoke to the room.


End file.
